Arthur Coleridge

Arthur Duke Coleridge (baptised, 1 February 1830 – 29 October 1913) was a nineteenth-century English lawyer who, as an amateur musician with influential connections, was the founder of The Bach Choir and the man who introduced the Mass in B minor by Johann Sebastian Bach to the English concert repertoire. He was also a cricketer who played first-class cricket for Cambridge University in 1850. He was born at Ottery St Mary, Devon and died at South Kensington, London.

Arthur Coleridge was the son of Francis Coleridge and the great-nephew of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was educated at Eton College where he played in the cricket team, hitting the winning runs in the 1847 Eton v Harrow match at Lord's. Matriculating at King's College, Cambridge in February 1849, Coleridge played a single first-class cricket match at Cambridge, scoring 1 and 17 when opening the batting against Marylebone Cricket Club. It is not known if he batted right- or left-handed.

Coleridge became a Fellow at King's College before becoming a lawyer, being called to the bar in 1860. He went into the administrative side of the English legal system and served as Clerk of Assize for the Midland Circuit for 37 years up to his death: he was taken ill while officiating at Lincoln Assizes and returned immediately to London just two days before his death. It was reported that he did not miss a single assizes session over his 37 years in post.

Coleridge was at the centre of British musical life for many years. He was himself an amateur tenor with a voice "of great power and dramatic quality" and "was one of the few amateurs who could speak with professionals" on equal terms. At Cambridge, he was a friend of Thomas Attwood Walmisley, the influential organist at Trinity College and from 1836 professor of music at Cambridge; he was later closely associated with William Sterndale Bennett, Walmisley's successor as professor of music at Cambridge and later director (and reviver) of the Royal Academy of Music.

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