Herbert Stephen Irons

IRONS, Herbert Stephen. b. Canterbury, 19 January 1834; d. Nottingham, 29 June 1905. The son of a lay clerk, John Irons, of Canterbury Cathedral, and a nephew of both Sir George Job Elvey* and Stephen Elvey*, he was a chorister at Canterbury before studying with his uncle, George Elvey. He moved to Ireland to become organist and precentor at St Columba College, Rathfarnham, before returning to England to take up the appointment of organist at Southwell Minster in the diocese of York. He was the last organist of the Collegiate Church according to the statutes of Elizabeth I: he held the position between 1857 and 1872 (Brown’s British Musical Biography and the obituary in the Musical Times;...