James Frederick Swift

James Frederick Swift (28 December 1847, Manchester^[1] – 9 January 1931, Wallasey^{[2][n 1]}) was an English organist and composer.^[3] He mostly worked for religious establishments such as St Andrew's Church in Liverpool for 10 years, but he also composed around 200 non-religious songs and ballads under the pseudonym, Godfrey Marks.^[1][4] One of his most famous songs is Sailing, Sailing. It is a possibility that Swift composed this work on seamanship based on his inspiration from Nancy Lee by Michael Maybrick,^[5] despite that his daughter, Ruby Gertrude Swift, expressed that his father had never been close to seafaring activities.^[6] One of his famous religious songs includes Ernstein.^[4][7]

Notes

1. His place of death is sometimes stated as Liscard, Cheshire; currently Merseyside, which also contains Wallasey.