Once in Royal David's City

Once in Royal David’s City (NOBC 93) was composed as a poem by Mrs Cecil Frances Humphreys (married name: Alexander), who also wrote ‘All things bright and beautiful’ and ‘There is a green hill far away’. All three poems were written for children to help them understand phrases in the Apostles' Creed.

Cecil Frances Humphreys (known as Fanny) was born in Dublin in 1818 and began writing religious verse in the 1840s, being greatly influenced by the anglo-catholic Oxford Movement.

John Keble, a leader of that movement, edited her book of poems Hymns for Little Children in 1848, which included Once in Royal David’s City. The poem had six stanzas (but no tune). Henry John Gauntlett, a London organist, wrote the tune ‘Irby’ to fit the poem in 1849 and it was published in Christmas Carols (London: Joseph Masters, 1849). In 1850 Fanny married Rev William Alexander (future Bishop of Derry); they had four children and she died in Derry in 1895.

In 1919 Gauntlett’s tune was re-harmonised by Dr Arthur Mann, Director of Music at King’s College Chapel, Cambridge for the iconic Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.