b. 1834 Hymnal Number: 6748 Composer of "ROYAL FORT" in Small Church Music Orchard, Edwin John, a chemist at Salisbury, was born at Whitchurch, Hants, in 1834. In 1869 he published a collection of original tunes as Orchard's Supplemental Psalmody. His hymn, "I have a Father up in heaven" (The Divine Father), appeared in W. R. Stevenson's School Hymnal, 1880, and again in other collections. One of his songs, "The Muster Roll," has been widely circulated in the Army. [Rev. W. R. Stevenson, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)
Edwin J. Orchard