Lesbia Scott

Lesbia Lesley Scott, née Locket (1898–1986), was an English writer of hymns and religious drama. Born at Willesden, London, on August 11, 1898, she was educated at Raven’s Croft School in Sussex. She married John Mortimer Scott, a Royal Navy officer who served in both world wars and later entered Anglican ministry, being ordained deacon in 1952 and priest in 1953.

During the 1920s Scott wrote simple hymns and tunes for her three children, often in response to family occasions and requests. A group of these pieces was published in London in 1929 by the Society of SS. Peter and Paul in a children’s collection cited in sources as Everyday Hymns for Little Children or Everyday Hymns for Children. Among them was “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God,” written for All Saints’ observance to teach that Christian sainthood belongs not only to distant historical figures but also to faithful people in ordinary life.

Scott also wrote religious one-act dramas and pageant plays, including That Fell Arrest (1937), Then Will She Return (1948), and The Window (1951). Her work remained closely connected with Christian education and imaginative teaching rather than with a professional career in church music. She died at Pershore, Worcestershire, on November 9, 1986. Her best-known hymn later became especially associated with American Episcopal worship after John Henry Hopkins composed the tune GRAND ISLE for it in 1940.