BSA Students and the Church of England

Several of the BSA students were ordained members of the Church of England. Five Oxford men were ordained after their time in Athens. There is one Cambridge student who was admitted as a student after ordination.

Rupert Charles Clarke (1866-1912) was the son of Frederick Ricketts Clarke, a printer in Taunton, Somerset. His father died when he was young, and his mother Elizabeth continued to run the family printing and bookselling business. Clarke was admitted as a student in the first year of the School (1887) and before he had completed his degree. He was subsequently curate at St Mary's, Reading (1889) and then rector of Ellesborough, Buckinghamshire (and rural dean of Wendover).

George Chatterton Richards (1867-1951) was the son of John Richards, a corn merchant who lived in Churchover, Warwickshire, but was originally from St Keverne in Cornwall. Richards was admitted to the BSA after his studies as Craven University Fellow (1889-90); he was re-admitted the following year. In 1891 he was appointed to the chair of Greek at the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, Cardiff (until 1898). He was ordained deacon in 1895 and served as curate at St John the Baptist, Cardiff, acting as chaplain to the university. In 1897 Richards returned to Athens as assistant director to David Hogarth. He returned to Oxford in 1899 as fellow, chaplain, and tutor at Oriel College. He also served as vicar of St Mary's, Oxford (1923-27) before being appointed to the chair of Greek at the University of Durham (1927).

Charles Cuthbert Inge (1868-1957) was the son of the Rev. William Inge (1829-1903), later provost of Worcester College, Oxford. His brother was William Ralph Inge (1860-1954), later Dean of St Paul's Cathedral. Their father held a High Church position, though William Ralph Inge was modernist in his theology. Charles Cuthbert Inge held the Oxford Studentship in 1891-92, and after ordination was curate of the Eton Mission in Hackney Wick (1894-96). He was subsequently curate of Cranleigh, Surrey (1896-1906), vicar of Holmwood, Surrey (1906-13), vicar of St Giles, Oxford (1913-37) and rural dean of Oxford (1925-37).

Oswald Hutton Parry (1868-1936) was the son of the Rev. Edward St John Parry (who had been born in Antigua), a school master in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire. He was admitted as a student to the BSA after completing classical moderations (in 1889). After his studies Parry visited the Jacobite Syrian Christians of Northern Mesopotamia (1892) (see his Six months in a Syrian monastery: being the record of a visit to the head quarters of the Syrian church in Mesopotamia, with some account of the Yazidis or devil worshippers of Mosul and El Jilwah, their sacred book [London: Horace Cox 1895]). He then took theological training in the diocese of Durham and was ordained in 1894, serving his first curacy in St Ignatius, Sunderland (1894-97). He was appointed Archbishop’s Missioner to the Nestorian Christians (1897-1907), recruiting Wigram (see below). He returned to England as vicar of All Hallows, East India Dock (1908-21) when he was consecrated Bishop of Guiana in the West Indies (1921).

John Henry Hopkinson (1876-1957), son of Sir Alfred Hopkinson, principal of Owens College, Manchester, had been admitted to the BSA in 1899-1900, and was Craven University Fellow (1900-01). He then pursued an academic career at the University of Birmingham (1901-04), and then the University of Manchester (1904-14). He married Evelyn Mary Fountaine in 1902; her father was the Rev. Henry Thomas Fountaine, the vicar of Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire. In 1914 Hopkinson was ordained and served a curacy at St Bartholomew, Colne (1914), and was then vicar of Holy Trinity, Colne, Lancashire (1915-20). (This was interrupted by a spell of war service as a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps.) He was briefly rector of Christ Church, Moss Side, Manchester (1920-21) before moving to be vicar of Burneside, Westmoreland (1921-28). He became a residentiary canon of Carlisle Cathedral (1927-31); he 1931 he was appointed Archdeacon of Westmoreland (to 1944) and vicar of Christ Church, Cockermouth (1931-36), and perpetual curate of Winster, near Windermere (1936-44). On retirement he served as an assistant curate to his youngest son in Battersea. (One of his other sons, Sir Henry Thomas Hopkinson, was editor of the Picture Post.)

The Rev. William Ainger Wigram (1872-1953), who had studied at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, was admitted as a BSA student in his 40s. He had served as a curate at St Barnabas, Sunderland (Diocese of Durham) before being recruited by the Rev. O.H. Parry for the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Mission to the Assyrian Christians (1902). He served in eastern Turkey until 1912 when he was attached to the Anglican chaplaincy in Constantinople. In the following session he was admitted as a student at the BSA. He was subsequently chaplain to the British Legation in Athens (1923-26).