About John Ireland

John Ireland was born in Bowdon, near Manchester, England on 13 August 1879. He studied composition at the Royal College of Music under C. V. Stanford. At the age of 17 he was appointed organist at Holy Trinity, Sloane Street and moved to St Lukes Church, Chelsea in 1904. For a short period before the Second World War, he was organist at St. Stephen's Church in St. Peter Port, Guernsey. He retired to Sussex in 1953 where he died on 12 June 1962. Ireland taught composition at the RCM and amongst his pupils were Britten, Geoffrey Bush and E J Moeran.