Feb­ru­ary 28, 1830, De­von­shire, Eng­land.

De­cem­ber 1, 1904, South­gate, Mid­dle­sex, Eng­land.

Christopher was the son of Chris­to­pher Will­ing, al­to and as­sist­ant gen­tle­man at the Cha­pel Roy­al. At age eight, he en­tered the West­mins­ter Ab­bey choir under Turle. Even at this age he could play the or­gan and once, when Turle be­came ill, he walked down the nave past the con­gre­ga­tion, climbed on­to the or­gan stool and fin­ished the serv­ice. He be­came dep­u­ty or­gan­ist at age 14, and was of­ten left in sole charge by Turle. In 1848, he was elect­ed or­gan­ist of the Found­ling Hos­pi­tal, stay­ing there 31 years, though part of the time he held other offices as well, driv­ing at full speed from one to ano­ther. One of his last ap­point­ments was or­gan­ist at Hugh Ha­weis’ church in West­min­ster Place, Ma­ry­le­bone, not far from Charles Wes­ley’s Lon­don home. He com­piled a col­lect­ion of tunes, ma­ny of his own com­po­si­tion, and was in­volved with op­era, as well. His works in­clude:

• Book of Com­mon Praise, 1868 (ed­it­or)

• Frost, p. 697
• Nutter, p. 469

1. Alstone
2. Melton