William Chatterton Dix

DIX, William Chatterton. b. Bristol, 14 June 1837; d. Cheddar, Axbridge, Somerset, 9 September 1898. Dix’s father was James Dix, a surgeon with literary interests, whose publications included a life of the poet Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770), after whom he named his son. William attended Bristol Grammar School: after a commercial training, he became the manager of a marine insurance firm in Glasgow. On retirement, he returned to south west England, where he lived at Cheddar. A committed high church Anglican, Dix was a prolific writer of hymns and devotional works. In early life he sang in the choir of St Raphael’s, Bristol, a church opened in 1859 which quickly became a centre for...