John Bacchus Dykes

DYKES, John Bacchus. b. Hull, 10 March 1823; d. Ticehurst, Sussex, 22 January 1876. He was the third son and fifth child (of 14) of Elizabeth and William Hey Dykes (his unusual second name is thought to be a Yorkshire corruption of ‘Backhouse’). He studied at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge from 1843 and graduated in 1847. At Cambridge he did much to lift the university out of a musically moribund state. He was President of the Cambridge University Musical Society (1846-47) and helped to establish the Society’s orchestra, for which he was not only an able performer on the violin and horn but also its conductor. He took lessons from T. A. Walmisley*, Professor of Music and sang in...