Frances Ridley Havergal (December 14, 1836 – June 3, 1879) was an English preacher, hymn writer, and poet whose ministry of words uplifted Victorian Christians with gospel truth and consecration. Born in Astley, Worcestershire, England, to William Henry Havergal, an Anglican clergyman and hymn writer, and Jane Head, she was the youngest of six children in a musical and devout family. Educated at home and later at schools in Worcester, Düsseldorf, and Oberkassel, she mastered multiple languages—including Greek and Hebrew—by her teens, memorizing much of the Bible after a conversion at 14 confirmed by her stepmother, Caroline Cooke, following Jane’s death in 1848. Havergal’s preaching career unfolded through her prolific hymns and writings rather than a pulpit, beginning with early poems and culminating in works like “Take My Life and Let It Be” (1874) after a transformative experience of surrender in 1873 at Areley House. Her “sermons” in song—such as “I Gave My Life for Thee” and “Who Is on the Lord’s Side?”—and books like Kept for the Master’s Use (1879) preached holiness and devotion, reaching churches and homes across England and beyond. Chronically ill yet tireless, she traveled to share her faith until collapsing in Wales. Never married, she died at age 42 in Caswell Bay, Swansea, Wales, from peritonitis.