Herbert Stanley Oakeley

Sir Herbert Stanley Oakeley (1830–1903) was an English composer, organist, conductor, teacher, and university music professor whose career was closely associated with Edinburgh. Born at Ealing on 22 July 1830, he was educated at Rugby School and Christ Church, Oxford, graduating B.A. in 1853 and M.A. in 1856. While at Oxford he studied organ and harmony with Stephen Elvey, and he later pursued further musical study in Germany with teachers including Ignaz Moscheles, Louis Plaidy, Johann Schneider, and others.

In 1865 Oakeley became Reid Professor of Music at the University of Edinburgh, a post he held until 1891. He expanded the university’s musical life through concerts, organ recitals, teaching, and the organization of student musical activity. Biographical sources also record his work at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Edinburgh and his broader influence on Scottish concert life. He was knighted in 1876.

Oakeley composed church music, songs, anthems, and hymn tunes. EDINA, dated 1868, became one of the tunes associated with Godfrey Thring’s “Savior, Blessed Savior” and appears with the text in a number of hymnals. His other hymn-tune work includes ABENDS. Oakeley’s importance lies not only in composition but also in the institutional development of music education and performance in nineteenth-century Scotland. He died at Eastbourne on 26 October 1903.