"
Onward Christian Soldiers " is a traditional English hymn written in the 19th century and still in use today worldwide. It has no reference to the Crusades. The lyrics were written by Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924), an Anglican priest, as a processional hymn for children who marched from Horbury Bridge to Horbury St. Peter's Church near Wakefield in Yorkshire. Baring-Gould served as an Anglican priest in Horbury.
He wrote the lyrics (1865) in fifteen minutes and declared, "It was written in great haste, and I am afraid that some of the lines are faulty." Modern hymnbooks use his original text, which was written to fit the
Symphony in D, No. 15 of Joseph Haydn (1732-1809).
The modern music of the hymn was written by Arthur Sullivan as the tune "St. Gertrude." Sullivan is famed as the second half of the Gilbert and Sullivan songwriting team.
Some see the song as militaristic (as in the Crusades) and have opposed its use. It was removed from the
Australian Hymnbook in 1888 and 1988 and from the 1990 hymnal of the Presbyterian Church (USA). An unsuccessful attempt was made to remove it from the
United Methodist Hymnal. What the hymn actually is is a reference to the
New Testament ideal of being a soldier for Christ (
2 Timothy 2:3).
The two men associated with the hymn were both British Anglicans, but they provide a clear contrast in their lives.
Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924) was an Anglican priest, , hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, hymnist, Basque translator, and scholar with over 1240 publications. He was married to one woman and was the father of fifteen children.
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842-1900) was a lover of British church music from an early age. As an adult he made his living from teaching music composition, as an organist, and as a composer (operas, orchestral music, ballets, chamber music, oratorios, piano compositions, and hymns). He was knighted in 1883. In his personal life: he never married, but had numerous torrid sexual relationships with multiple women, often at the same time; in one case, with two sisters. He was believed also to be bisexual, as evidenced by this cartoon from
Punch magazine (1880,
Punch's Fancy Portraits - no, 5).
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