Henry John Gauntlett

GAUNTLETT, Henry John. b. Wellington, Shropshire, 9 July 1805; d. 21 February 1876. His father, Henry Gauntlett, an Evangelical minister, became curate (1811) then vicar (1815) of Olney, Buckinghamshire, where he appointed his musically precocious boy as organist at the age of ten. But in 1826 he articled his son to a solicitor: he qualified as a solicitor in 1831. He was also organist of St. Olave, Southwark, from 1827 to 1847. He was an expert on organ construction and a pioneering advocate of the C compass (which expanded the pedal compass, allowing the works of Bach* to be played in their original form) in opposition to the views of Samuel Sebastian Wesley* and others. He became the...