John Mason Neale was born in London, January 24th, 1818. His father was a highly-gifted clergyman and his mother a lady remarkable for her force of character. He was brought up as a strict Evangelical, but after entering Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1836, his views soon broadened and he became a co-founder of the "The Ecclesiological Society," its object being to reconstruct the visible worship and Church architecture of England. How vast was the work it accomplished is known to all students of Church history. In 1842 Mr. Neale was made a priest. The next three years he spent abroad with his wife when he wrote magazine articles and pamphlets by the hundred, poems and hymns by the dozen, entered the domain of fiction, but shone most as a Church historian, his uncompleted "History of the Holy Eastern Church" gaining him a world-wide reputation and winning him the special thanks of the Czar of Russia. He came to East Grinstead, as the Warden of Sackville College, in 1846, and here he remained for 20 years, never resting, always devising something for the benefit of his poorer neighbours, always having some literary work on hand. It was while here that he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Hartford College, Connecticut. The hymns composed or translated by him are sung in every country where the Christian faith is known, and the popularity will never fade of such beautiful lines as "Brief life is here our portion," "To thee, O dear, dear country," "Art thou weary?" "Jerusalem the golden" and The day is past and over." He won the Seatonian prize for poetry about a dozen times in all; he was for three years leader writer for The Morning Chronicle; he published works in many different languages - he was a master of about twenty; and the British Museum Library catalogue contains a list of something like 140 books written by him. In 1854 he commenced his work to found The Sisterhood and Orphanage of St Margarets, St Agnes School and the Industrial School for Servants. He never lived to see the completion of his work as he passed away prematurely on the 6th August 1866.