Godfrey Thring

Godfrey Thring (1823–1903) was an English Anglican priest, hymn writer, and hymnal editor. Born at Alford in Somerset on 25 March 1823, he was educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1845. He entered Church of England ministry in the 1840s, served several curacies, and in 1858 succeeded his father as rector of Alford with Hornblotton. He later held diocesan responsibilities and became a prebendary of Wells Cathedral.

Thring began writing hymns extensively in the 1860s. His publications included Hymns Congregational and Others (1866), Hymns and Sacred Lyrics (1874), and A Church of England Hymn Book, first issued in 1880 and revised in 1882. His texts were written for congregational worship across the church year and commonly combine biblical language, doctrinal clarity, and a strong sense of Christian pilgrimage, consecration, and praise.

Among his enduring hymns are “Savior, Blessed Savior,” “The Radiant Morn Hath Passed Away,” “Fierce Raged the Tempest,” and “From the Eastern Mountains.” Thring also produced an English version of Martin Luther’s “Ein feste Burg.” His work belongs to the vigorous nineteenth-century Anglican renewal of hymnody, when clergy and musicians were creating and editing texts for a rapidly expanding congregational repertoire. He retired from his parish in 1893 and died at Shamley Green, Surrey, on 13 September 1903.