Patrick Appleford (born 1925) found his vocation at Trinity College, Cambridge, where Geoffrey Beaumont was his chaplain. He studied for the ministry at Chichester and served his first curacy at All Saints Poplar, in the East End of London from 1952-8. There he wrote pantomimes for the youth club and his first hymns. With Beaumont, he founded the 20th Century Church Light Music Group and edited a number of collections of new hymns and songs, many of which found their way into hymn books around the world and are still sung frequently today.