The son of Thomas Forbes Walmisley (Organist of Croydon Parish Church), Thomas Attwood Walmisley was born in Westminster in 1814. He took up the joint appointment of Organist at St John’s and Trinity Colleges in 1833 at the age of 19. His premature death was, as John E West has suggested, 'hastened by an unwise indulgence in lethal remedies'. Stanford commented that 'Walmisley … was a victim of four o’clock dinners in Hall, and long symposiums in the Combination Room after; and being a somewhat lonely bachelor, the excellent port of the College cellars was, at times, more his master than his servant'. As a composer, Walmisley is chiefly known for his setting of the Evening Canticles in D minor.