Cyrill John Wyche

WYCHE, Cyrill John. b. London, England, 1870s?; d. South Africa, mid-20th century.  Cyrill John Wyche was an Anglican priest, hymn editor, and educational administrator, active in the Eastern Cape during the early 20th century. He immigrated to South Africa with his family in 1878 when his father, Cyrill Herbert Eyre Wyche (1834–1881), was appointed Rector of East London in the Cape Colony. After theological training, Wyche began his ministry as an assistant missionary at St Matthew’s Mission in Keiskammahoek, likely between 1895 and 1903. There he compiled the St Matthew’s Tune Book, an influential but little-circulated collection of Xhosa hymn tunes and Anglican liturgical music. He later...