William John Blew


William John Blew was a translator and hymnist.

Life

He was the only son of William Blew.
He was born in St. James's, Westminster on 13 April 1808.
He was educated with John Henry Newman at Great Ealing School.
He graduated Wadham College, Oxford, B.A. in 1830, and M.A. 1832.
On taking Holy Orders, Blew was Curate of Nuthurst and Cocking, and St. Annes, Westminster, and for a time Incumbent of St. John's next Gravesend.
He had married after his father's death in 1845, and resided at his father's house, 6 Warwick Street, Pall Mall East, where he died, aged 86, on 28 December 1894.

Works

Besides translation from Homer and Aeschylus, and works in the Book of Common Prayer, including a paraphrase on a translation of the same in Latin, he edited the Breviarium Aberdonense 1854; and published a pamphlet on Hymns and Hymn Books, 1858; and the Church Hymn and Tune Book, 1852, 2nd. ed. 1855. The hymns in the last work are chiefly translations by Blew of Latin hymns. They were written from 1845 to 1852, and printed on fly-sheets for the use of his congregation. Many of these translations have come into common use.
Blew also translated the Altar Service of the Church of England of 1548 into English.