Ada R. Habershon

Ada R. Habershon

Short Name: Ada R. Habershon
Full Name: Habershon, Ada R. (Ada Ruth)
Birth Year: 1861
Death Year: 1918

Ada Ruth Habershon was born on January 8, 1861, in Marylebone, Middlesex, England. She was an English Christian hymn writer whose texts have been widely published in hymnals and gospel song collections.

Habershon was raised in Chelsea, London, in a Christian family; her father, Samuel Osborne Habershon, was a physician. She received her early education at a boarding school in Dover and later studied at the Female School of Art in South Kensington.

She became involved in Christian ministry work in the 1880s, including educational work for children and missions with evangelistic organizations. In the 1890s she taught Bible subjects, including a period in the United States at the request of evangelist Dwight L. Moody.

Habershon began writing hymn texts in 1901. She supplied hundreds of hymns for evangelistic campaigns organized by Charles M. Alexander and R. A. Torrey and published collections of her works, including Twelve Sacred Songs in 1907. Her text for Will the Circle Be Unbroken? (1907), set to music by Charles H. Gabriel, became widely known.

In 1912, she founded the women’s branch of the Society for the Investigation of Prophecy and served as its honorary secretary until her death. Ada R. Habershon died on February 1, 1918, in Marylebone, London.