Henry Williams Baker was the son of Rear Admiral Sir Henry Lorraine Baker, a hereditary baronet. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and took his degree of B.A. in 1844, was ordained deacon in the same year, and ordained priest two years later. After ordination he acted as curate at Great Horkesley in Essex until appointed vicar of Monkland near Leominster in 1851, where he remained as priest for more than 25 years.

When Sir Henry arrived in Monkland he found the church was in a dilapidated condition and in 1865 commissioned the little known architect George Edmund Street to re-design the building. Street went on to build many important buildings, including the new Law Courts in London and the restoration of the cathedrals of York, Salisbury and Carlisle. The work on Monkland Church was completed in 1866 and Sir Henry paid for a substantial part of it himself.

Sir Henry worked to provide the village with a school. He donated a parcel of glebe land belonging to the Vicarage as a site for the National School. With places for 60 children, the school soon won a reputation for efficiency.

When he arrived in Monkland the church was without a vicarage so he had one built to his own design, calling it ‘Horkesley House’ after the place of his curacy, which suggests that he had many happy memories of his first clerical post. The house was provided with a private chapel, in which an organ was a prominent piece of furniture. The vicar’s love for sacred music was so great that all the members of his staff, indoor and outdoor, were chosen for their ability to sing in choir. Baker was himself a competent amateur musician. Shortly after arriving in Monkland he wrote his earliest hymn, “Oh, what, if we are Christ’s is earthly shame or loss?“

It was Sir Henry who was the dynamic leader of the several distinguished men who compiled that anthology of hymns known as “Hymns Ancient and Modern”. The work rapidly gained popularity, and is still widely used – more than a century after its first publication. He contributed twelve original hymns and at least ten translations to the publication. His particular skill was not only in the writing of the verse, but in adapting his compilation to the prevailing tastes of the Church of England at the time. The work has been published in a great variety of forms and sizes, with and without tunes, both in England and America. No other compilation can compare with it in the extent of its circulation and it is claimed that nearly five million copies have been sold.

Sir Henry was also the author of Daily Prayers, for the Use of Those Who Have to Work Hard, a Daily Text-Book, also for ‘hard workers’, and a few short tracts.

Sir Henry Baker held the doctrine of the celibacy of the clergy, and at his death the baronetcy devolved on a kinsman.

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