Arthur Egerton

Egerton, Arthur

Arthur (Henry) Egerton (b Egg). Organist-choirmaster, teacher, composer, b Montreal 1891, d Hemmingford, Que, 10 Dec 1957; honorary ARCM, FRCO 1913, B MUS (McGill) 1921, D MUS (Toronto) 1936. He studied organ at the McGill Cons with Percival J. Illsley and Lynnwood Farnam and on a Lord Strathcona Scholarship at the RCM 1911-13 with Sir Walter Alcock, Sir Walter Parratt, and others. On his return to Montreal Egerton succeeded Farnam as organist-choirmaster 1913-21 at Christ Church Cathedral and taught organ and theory at McGill. Moving to Winnipeg, he was organist-choirmaster 1922-7 at All Saints Anglican Church and Grace United Church successively and conductor 1926-7 of the Winnipeg Choral and Orchestral Society. He spent the next 10 years in the USA, 1927-9 as organist-choirmaster at St Paul's Episcopal Church in Duluth, Minn, and 1927-37 as head of the Music Dept at Wells College, Aurora, NY. He returned to Canada and a succession of church positions - at St Andrew's Presbyterian, Ottawa, in 1937, at Trinity Memorial in Montreal 1938-47, and again at Christ Church Cathedral 1947-51 - and to a position as supervisor of school music in Outremont, Montreal. Egerton composed anthems and organ pieces, some published by Gray, Oxford, and Western. His D MUS exercise, a setting of Bliss Carman's 'A Sailor's Wedding,' remained unpublished.