Walter Bond Gilbert

GILBERT, Walter Bond. b. Exeter, 21 April 1829; d. Oxford, 2 March 1910. The son of Samuel Thomas Gilbert, he studied music, and as a young man played the organ at St Thomas’s Church, Exeter. He was further taught by the Exeter Cathedral organist, Samuel Sebastian Wesley* (organist 1835-42). Gilbert was organist of several notable Churches from 1847 onwards: Topsham, Devon (1847-49); Bideford, Devon (1849-54); Tonbridge, Kent (1854-59); Maidstone, Kent (1859-66); Lee, Kent (1866-68); and Boston, Lincolnshire (1868-69). In 1869 he left for the USA to take up the organist’s post at Trinity Church, New York City, where he remained for almost thirty years, from 1869 to 1899, under the...