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IR JOSEPH BARNBY, whose services to music have recently been rewarded by the honour of knighthood, was born at York, and was chorister in York Minster from eight years of age to fourteen. At sixteen he became a student at the Royal Academy of Music, where he continued to study for three years. At twenty-five he was appointed organist at St. Andrew's, Well Street, which post he held for eight years, when he was elected organist at St. Anne's, Soho, where he continued until 1886. During most of this time he was acting as conductor of oratorio concerts, and succeeded Gounod as conductor of the Royal Albert Hall Choral Society in 1872. In 1875 he was appointed Precentor and Director of Musical Instruction at Eton College. He was the conductor of most of the Royal and State functions, such as the receptions of the Shah in 1873 and 1889, and of the Czar in 1874. Sir Joseph Barnby's own compositions are very numerous, including the Oratorio of "Rebekah," produced in 1870, Cantata on Psalm. xcvii., at the Leeds Festival in 1883, and a very large number of services, anthems, and hymns.