Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/316

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Calkin
296
Calkin

illustrate his articles, and he took out several patents for inventions.

[Army and Navy Gazette, 26 April 1902; The Times, 22 April 1902; private information.]

CALKIN, JOHN BAPTISTE (1827–1905), organist and composer, born in London on 16 March 1827, was son of James Calkin (1786-1862), composer and pianist. Reared in a musical atmosphere, he studied music under his father, and his three brothers, Joseph, James, and George, also adopted the profession. When nineteen he was appointed organist, precentor, and choirmaster of St. Columba's College, Rathfarnham, co. Dublin, in succession to Edwin George Monk. St. Columba's College was a school mainly for the boys of the upper classes and for candidates for the ministry of the Church of Ireland; music and the Irish language were prominent features in the curriculum. From 1846 to 1853 Calkin zealously maintained a high standard of choral music at St. Columba's, and he cultivated composition. From 1853 to 1863 he was organist and choirmaster of Woburn Chapel, London; from 1863 to 1868 organist of Camden Road Chapel; and from 1870 to 1884 organist at St. Thomas's Church, Camden Town. In 1883 he became professor at the Guildhall School of Music under Mr. Weist Hill, and thenceforth devoted himself to teaching and composing. He was on the council of Trinity College, London, a member of the Philharmonic Society (1862), and a fellow of the College of Organists, incorporated in 1893. As a composer, Calkin essayed many forms, but his sacred music is best known, especially his morning and evening services in B flat, G, and D. His communion service in C is marked Op. 134, a sufficient proof of his fertility. He wrote much for the organ, including numerous transcriptions, and he scored many string arrangements, as well as original sonatas, duos, &c. A few of his anthems are still heard, while his hymn tunes, though not to be found in 'Hymns Ancient and Modern,' are in many other collections. His setting of 'Fling out the Banner' (by Bishop G. W. Doane) has a great vogue in America and the colonies, and is included in the Canadian 'Book of Common Praise,' edited by Sir George Martin in 1909. His 'Agape' was composed specially for the 'Church Hymnary' of Scotland in 1871, to the words 'Jesu, most loving God,' and was inserted in the 'Church Hymnal' of Ireland in 1874.

Calkin died at Hornsey Rise Gardens on 15 April 1905, and was buried in Highgate cemetery.

[Personal knowledge; Brown and Stratton's Brit. Musical Biog. 1897; Cowan and Love's Music of the Church Hymnary, 1901; Musical Times, May 1905.]

CALLOW, WILLIAM (1812–1908), water-colour painter, was born at Greenwich on 28 July 1812. Descended from an old family of the eastern counties, his grandfather, John Callow (1730–1786), was an artist engaged in the decoration of porcelain at the Lowestoft factory, while his father, Robert Callow, was employed in the supervision of building works at Greenwich and elsewhere. William was an elder brother and the instructor of John Callow (1822–1878) [q. v.]. At a very early age he developed a love for drawing, and in 1823 he was engaged by Theodore Fielding, an elder brother of Copley Fielding, to assist him in colouring prints and engraving in aquatint. Subsequently, in 1825, he was articled for eight years to Theodore and Thales Fielding as a pupil for instruction in water-colour painting and aquatint engraving. He worked with them and their brother Newton in London, and from 1829 with the latter in Paris. There Charles Bentley was his fellow-pupil, and he and Thomas Shotter Bays much influenced his style. In 1831 he sent to the Salon a 'View of Richmond' which attracted so much attention that he was invited to give lessons to the family of King Louis Philippe, whose daughter, the Princess Clementine, became his pupil for some years. At the same period he took long walking tours in France, as well as in the Pyrenees, Switzerland, and Italy, for the purpose of sketching. He also sent drawings to various provincial exhibitions, at some of which he obtained medals, and he received a gold medal at the Paris Salon of 1840.

In 1841 he left Paris and settled in London, where in 1838 he had been elected an associate of the Society of Painters in Water Colours, of which in 1848 he became a full member, contributing during his long life to the exhibitions of that body upwards of 1400 drawings. He acted as its secretary from 1866 to 1870, and he was presented with an illuminated address of congratulation from the president and his fellow-members on completing his ninetieth year in 1902.

About 1848 he took to oil-painting, and he contributed thirty-seven works to the exhibitions of the British Institution from that year until its close in 1867. From