William Thomas Best (13 August 182610 May 1897) was an English organist and composer.
Life
He was born at Carlisle, Cumberland, the son of William Best, a local solicitor. In childhood, he displayed talent for music, and had some lessons from Young, organist of Carlisle Cathedral. As his father intended he should become a civil engineer, he was sent to Liverpool in 1840 for study. At the age of fourteen, he became organist of the baptist chapel in Pembroke Road, which had an organ with a C<sub>2</sub>–C<sub>3</sub> pedal keyboard, then very rare in England. He practised four hours daily on this organ, and also worked regularly at pianoforte technique.
In the main, Best was self-taught; the organists of that period were nearly all accustomed only to the incomplete F or G organs, upon which the works of Bach and Mendelssohn could not be played, and he applied himself to Bach's music in particular. He had some lessons in counterpoint from John Richardson, organist of St. Nicholas's Roman Catholic church; and also, it appears, from a blind organist.
At about the age of twenty, he decided to become a professional musician.
In 1847 he was appointed organist at the Church for the Blind in Liverpool, and in 1849 also to the Liverpool Philharmonic Society under whose auspices he made his first appearance as a concert organist.