1. Herbert Howells's father played the organ at the local Baptist church, and Herbert showed early musical promise, first deputising for his father, and then moving at the age of eleven to the local Church of England parish church as choirboy and unofficial deputy organist.
The Howells family's precarious financial situation came to a head when Oliver filed for bankruptcy in September 1904, when Herbert was nearly 12.
Herbert Howells related in later years how Vaughan Williams sat next to him for the remainder of the concert and shared his score of Edward Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius with the awestruck aspiring composer.
In 1912, following the example of Ivor Gurney, Herbert Howells moved to London to study at the Royal College of Music, where his teachers included Charles Villiers Stanford, Hubert Parry and Charles Wood.
Herbert Howells' promise was imperilled in 1915 when he was diagnosed with Graves' disease and given six months to live.
For much of this time Herbert Howells travelled between London for treatment and Lydney where he was nursed by his mother.
Herbert Howells was nonetheless still able to compose and in 1916 produced the first work of his maturity.
In 1920 Herbert Howells married Dorothy Eveline Goozee, informally adopted daughter of John and Alma Dawe.
Herbert Howells was deeply affected and continued to commemorate the event until the end of his life.
Herbert Howells wrote the tune Twigworth for the hymn "God is love, let heaven adore him".
Herbert Howells' association with Cambridge, which lasted until the end of the war in 1945, was a productive and happy period for him, and led directly to the works for which he is most remembered.
Herbert Howells later recalled being challenged by the Dean of King's College, Eric Milner-White, to write a set of canticles for the choir.
In 1949, the organist Herbert Sumsion asked Howells if he had anything that could be performed at the 1950 Three Choirs Festival to be held at Gloucester.
Herbert Howells decided to bring out the incomplete choral work he had written in his son Michael's memory between 1936 and 1938.
Herbert Howells's follow-up work to the Hymnus Paradisi was an extended setting of the Latin Mass for soloists, chorus and orchestra, named Missa Sabrinensis after the River Severn and first performed in Worcester Cathedral as part of the Three Choirs Festival in 1954.
Herbert Howells followed it with An English Mass, a smaller-scale setting to English words for chorus, strings and organ.
Herbert Howells began it in 1959 but found it difficult to complete; it was not performed until 1965.
Herbert Howells continued to compose until his late 80s, but wrote nothing further on the scale of the Stabat Mater.
Herbert Howells died on 23 February 1983 at the age of 90, in a nursing home in Putney, one day after his good friend Sir Adrian Boult, and his ashes were interred in Westminster Abbey.
Herbert Howells was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1953 and Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1972.
Herbert Howells composed a range of orchestral, choral and chamber works.