Stephen Elvey

ELVEY, Stephen. b. Canterbury, 27 June 1805; d. Oxford, 6 October 1860. The son of John Elvey and Abigail Hardiman, he enjoyed the encouragement of a musical family, was a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, and received tuition from the organist, Highmore Skeats, and his successor, Thomas Evance Jones. At the age of 17 he was shot in the right leg, which had to be amputated. This did not deter him from pursuing a career as an organist, and he trained himself to use the swell box with a wooden substitute, using his left leg for the pedals. In 1831 he became organist of New College, Oxford, where he taught his younger brother, George Job Elvey*. Stephen Elvey became organist of the University...