Henry Francis Lyte with notes by William Holmes

Henry Francis Lyte is famous for penning the words of the ever popular hymn “Abide With Me” as well as “Praise, My Soul, The King of Heaven”. However, he authored other less well known hymns as well as poems and books including this one. Lyte was born in Kelso, Scotland and after his family was deserted by his father, was educated at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen in pre-partition Ireland’s County Fermanagh.

After studying at Trinity College, Dublin, and with very limited training for the ministry, he became an Anglican clergyman, serving in a number of parishes before eventually settling in Lower Brixham, a Devon fishing village. A man of chronic poor health, he died in Nice in 1847, probably from tuberculosis.