George P. Ewens

Ewens, George P. [or D.] (fl. 1880). An English major with the Salvation Army. Caroline L. Goodenough, High Lights on Hymnists (1931), quotes S.C. Gantlett of the British Salvation Army to the effect that Major Ewens was the author of "If you want pardon, if you want peace." In America, it first appears anonymously in an 1880 Salvation Army songbook, but in their 1953 songbook, Ewens is named as the author. Ewens' hymn has the refrain "Living beneath the shade of the cross."

The hymn has been attributed to several other writers over the years, but each time with a different refrain so one can only conclude that Ewens wrote the basic hymn while others arranged it with different refrains.

--Leonard Ellinwood, DNAH Archives