John Oxenham

Born William Arthur Dunkerley in Manchester in 1852, he is best remembered by his pen name, John Oxenham. He worked as a journalist before building a wide readership as a novelist and poet, and his writing often blended everyday feeling with Christian faith, patriotism, and encouragement.

Oxenham published a large number of books, including novels, poems, and hymns, and his work found a broad audience in Britain and beyond in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some of his verses became especially popular in wartime and in devotional settings, helping to make his name familiar even to readers who had not followed his fiction.

He died in 1941, leaving behind a substantial body of work that reflects the values, anxieties, and hopes of his era. For listeners today, his writing offers a window into a once hugely popular voice whose poems and stories aimed to comfort, steady, and inspire.