The son of a clergyman and church musician, Charles Hylton Stewart (1884-1932) was born in Chester. He was a chorister at Magdalen College, Oxford, before taking up the Organ Scholarship at Peterhouse, Cambridge. Around this time, he acted as Assistant Organist to A H Mann at King’s College. Subsequently he held positions at Sedbergh School, St Martin’s Church, Scarborough, and Blackburn Parish Church, before holding the Organist posts at Rochester and then Chester Cathedral. He became Organist of St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in September 1932, though he died just two months later. Twenty-one of Hylton Stewart’s psalm chants were incorporated into the St John’s College psalter by George Guest who, presumably, had sung them while a chorister at Chester Cathedral in the 1930s.

from notes by John Challenger © 2022