Joseph Anstice

ANSTICE, Joseph. b. Madeley, Shropshire, 21 December 1808; d. Torquay, Devon, 29 February 1836. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford (BA, 1831, MA, 1835), where he won prizes for English Verse and for an English Essay. He was a friend of William Ewart Gladstone*, who said of him ‘would I were worthy to be his companion.’ In 1831, at the age of 22, he was appointed Professor of Classics at the newly-founded King’s College, London. He resigned through ill-health in 1835, and died of consumption a few months later. During the last weeks of his life, he taught pupils during the morning and dictated hymns to his wife each afternoon: they were published in 1836 as Hymns...