He was a composer, teacher and classical scholar born William Adair Pickard-Cambridge in Dorset, England, whose clergyman father Rev. Octavius Pickard-Cambridge was a Victorian naturalist and world-renowned for his highly acclaimed work as an arachnologist, his cousin Frederick Octavius was also a well regarded arachnologist and his brother, Sir Arthur Wallace Pickard-Cambridge is considered as of the 20th century’s greatest authorities on the subject of Greek theatre.
As an author he is still recognised today for his work as a translator of Aristotle and the other works he will be remembered for are his many published translations of Christmas carols such as in his book A Collection of Dorset Carols and “Angelus ad Virginem” which he named “Gabriel to Mary Came”.
He composed and published many hymns in books and collections that included Three Carols, Ridley’s New Series Classical Church Music, Six Songs and Lux Crucis: A Series of Devotions with Special Hymns.
He died in England in 1957 aged 77 leaving behind him many music manuscripts that are now held in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University and others with family documents are looked after at the Dorset History Centre in Dorchester. Sadly it is thought that many other of his manuscripts were destroyed in London during the blitz in 1940.
Sources:
- http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Images/Pickard-Cambridge/table_of_contents.htm
- http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/gabriel_to_mary_came-pickard.htm
- http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/sophist_refut.html
- http://the0phrastus.typepad.com/noncontradiction/2007/03/topics_iiv_tran.html
- http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/topics.html