Hensley Henson

Herbert Hensley Henson (8 November 1863 – 27 September 1947) was an English Anglican cleric, scholar and polemicist. He was Bishop of Hereford from 1918 to 1920 and Bishop of Durham from 1920 to 1939. Henson's father was a devout follower of the Christian sect the Plymouth Brethren and disapproved of schools. Henson was not allowed to go to school until he was fourteen, and was largely self-educated. He was admitted to the University of Oxford, and gained a first-class degree in 1884. In the same year he was elected as a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and began to make a reputation as a speaker. He was ordained priest in 1888. Feeling a vocation to minister to the urban poor, Henson served in the East End of London and Barking before becoming the chaplain of Ilford Hospital Chapel, a 12th-century hospice in Ilford, in 1895. In 1900 he was appointed to the prominent post of rector of St Margaret's, Westminster, and canon of Westminster Abbey. While there, and subsequently as Dean of Durham (1913–1918), he wrote prolifically and sometimes controversially. He was tolerant of a wide range of theological views; because of this, some members of the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church of England accused him of heresy and sought unsuccessfully to block his appointment as Bishop of Hereford in 1917. In 1920, after two years in the largely rural diocese of Hereford, Henson returned to Durham in the industrial north-east of England as its bishop. The area was badly affected by an economic depression. Henson was opposed to strikes, trade unions and socialism, and for a time his outspoken denunciation of them made him unpopular in the diocese. Some of his opinions changed radically during his career: at first a strong advocate of the Church of England's continued establishment as the country's official church, he came to believe that politicians could not be trusted to legislate properly on ecclesiastical matters, and he espoused the cause of disestablishment. He campaigned against prohibition, the exploitation of foreign workers by British companies, and fascist and Nazi aggression. He supported reform of the divorce laws, the controversial 1928 revision of the Book of Common Prayer, and ecumenism.

Infobox

Church

Church of England

Province

York

Diocese

Durham

In office

1920–1939

Predecessor

Handley Moule

Successor

Alwyn Williams

Tables

· Notes, references and sources › Sources

Preceded byGeorge Kitchin

Church of England titles

Preceded byGeorge Kitchin

Church of England titles

Dean of Durham 1912–1918

Church of England titles

Succeeded byJames Welldon

Preceded byJohn Percival

Church of England titles

Preceded byJohn Percival

Church of England titles

Bishop of Hereford 1917–1920

Church of England titles

Succeeded byLinton Smith

Preceded byHandley Moule

Church of England titles

Preceded byHandley Moule

Church of England titles

Bishop of Durham 1920–1939

Church of England titles

Succeeded byAlwyn Williams

Professional and academic associations

Church of England titles

Professional and academic associations

Preceded byHenry Gee

Church of England titles

Preceded byHenry Gee

Church of England titles

President of the Surtees Society 1939–1945

Church of England titles

Succeeded byAlwyn Williams

Church of England titles
Preceded byGeorge Kitchin	Dean of Durham 1912–1918	Succeeded byJames Welldon
Preceded byJohn Percival	Bishop of Hereford 1917–1920	Succeeded byLinton Smith
Preceded byHandley Moule	Bishop of Durham 1920–1939	Succeeded byAlwyn Williams
Professional and academic associations
Preceded byHenry Gee	President of the Surtees Society 1939–1945	Succeeded byAlwyn Williams

References

It is not clear whether there was any formal or legal wedding; the sect that Henson senior followed discouraged legal ce
All Souls describes itself as primarily an academic research institution. Although its fellows are involved in teaching
The biographer John Peart-Binns notes that from his £200 a year Henson made substantial contributions to his family as h
Salisbury owned much of the land around St Margaret's, Barking. As a former fellow of All Souls he knew Henson, and they
After the second miscarriage, Henson wrote in his journal, "What a second holocaust of hopes & loves within half a year!
Although the company attempted to impugn Henson's reputation, the British government appointed a select committee to inv
The Abbey is a royal peculiar and at St Margaret's the rectors, unlike other parish priests, were not formally installed
Gore's specific objection was not to Henson's preaching in a nonconformist establishment, but his doing so within anothe
Lloyd George was from a nonconformist family, like the majority of Welsh people, though agnostic himself.
Henson's view has generally prevailed over that of Gore and his followers: in a study published in 1998, the theologian
Theoretically, the power to choose whom to appoint remained (and still remains) with the monarch, but the exercise of th
Moule and his two immediate predecessors at Durham, Joseph Lightfoot and Brooke Foss Westcott, had all been all professo
Welldon had been Bishop of Calcutta from 1898 to 1902, before resigning and returning to Britain, where he served as Dea
Welldon's enthusiasm for teetotalism did not extend to himself: Henson recorded in his journal that Sir David Drummond m
Henson's relations even with his gaiter-wearing (i . episcopal or other senior clerical) colleagues could be warm. He an
Evangelicals objected to, among other things, an epiclesis (invoking the Holy Spirit to descend on the communion element
The new text was published in December 1928 and carried the statement in bold type that "the publication of this Book do
Dwelly's biographer Peter Kennerley considers it ironic that Henson, who moved the motion against David at the Northern
The friendship between Henson and Booker was the basis of a 1987 novel by Susan Howatch, Glittering Images, in which Hen
The many senior clergy of his day who had been at Eton, Harrow or other leading public schools included Alington, Davids