O Son of Man, our hero strong and tender

O Son of Man, our hero strong and tender*. Frank Fletcher* (1870-1954). Written for the chapel at Charterhouse School, where Fletcher was headmaster from 1911 to 1935. This is the best known of the hymns that appeared in the Clarendon Hymn Book* (1936), a book with a strong Charterhouse element. It had been written ca. 1924 and had appeared before The Clarendon Hymn Book in SofP, SofPE, and RCH. It continued to be popular, perhaps because it was written to correct the portrayal of Jesus as meek and gentle: it appeared in CP, BHB , and the Scottish CH3. It is possible that the first line owes something to ‘Strong Son of God, immortal love’* by Alfred Tennyson*. Clearly it was written for a...