Harold Davidson
Encyclopedia
Harold Francis Davidson (14 July 1875 – 30 July 1937), sometimes known as the "Prostitutes' Padre", was a Church of England
priest
, often referred to as the "Rector of Stiffkey". In 1932 he was defrocked on charges of immorality. He died after he was attacked by a lion in a cage.
, Randall Davidson. His father, the Reverend Francis Davidson, came from a wealthy Birmingham family but poured his money into building the new parish of St Mary's in Sholing
, Southampton to which he had been appointed in 1866 and also on his wife who was severely ill all her life. There was little left to finance his son's studies. Davidson was educated at the Banister Court School in Southampton
and the Whitgift School
in Croydon
, moving there to live with his maternal aunts and grandmother.
During his years at Whitgift he formed a small group of amateur actors with other boys and they would organise fundraising events for his father's parish and, later, for other churches in the Southampton area. When Davidson left Whitgift in 1894 he and his friends decided to spend their pre-university gap year
becoming professional entertainers. They toured the provinces and were invited to appear at the Steinway Hall
in London in 1895.
Mission in the East End of London. After three years he realised the stage was not a very conscientious way of life for him and, having saved enough to begin studies, he entered Exeter College
, Oxford.
Davidson was allowed to continue his stage career while he studied Theology. However, due to his absences and exam failure, Exeter required him to leave in 1901. Davidson obtained a place at Grindle's Hall instead, where he obtained a Bachelor's
and a Master's degree
in the normal five-year span, though half of his time was spent away from college.
He joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society
, where he formed a lifelong friendship with Reginald Kennedy-Cox who would later found the Dockland Settlement in the East End. They used to arrange gatherings of artists for Sunday teas in Kennedy-Cox's rooms and at one of these Davidson met his future wife. He stood out in debates and his views on church reform caught the eye of the Bishop of Stepney
, Arthur Winnington-Ingram
who later became Bishop of London and was to remain one of Davidson's supporters at the trial and until Davidson's death. He also became president of the Oxford University Chess Club
, organising tours against other universities and representing Oxford in the annual chess matches against Cambridge in 1901, 1902 and 1903.
was at the Guards Chapel (Holy Trinity) at Windsor
and then from August 1905 he was a curate
of St Martin-in-the-Fields
. Davidson's appointment as Rector of Stiffkey
St John with Stiffkey St Mary and Morston
was announced in July 1906. Stiffkey and Morston are rural parishes on the north coast of Norfolk
. In October 1906 after a six-year engagement, he married Moyra ('Molly') Saurin.
He was popular in his Norfolk parishes where he was the only resident landowner; Marquess Townshend who owned all the land other than the glebe
lived in London and rarely came up to his estates in Norfolk. The rector looked after the villagers' needs, whether they went to his church or not. He visited everyone each week and he did special tours at Michaelmas to ensure they all had enough to pay their rents; he would pay the money due if they didn't. His diminutive stature (he was 5'3") led his parishioners to nickname him 'Little Jim'.
He maintained his connections with the theatrical world and kept up with theatre friends all his life. He was the first chaplain of the Actors' Church Union of Central London while he was still at St Martin-in-the-Fields until 1918. At the request of a school friend, Maundy Gregory
, he invested in a disastrous revival of the comic opera Dorothy
at the Waldorf Theatre in 1909.
He served as a Royal Navy
chaplain
from 1916-20. When he returned, his wife Molly was pregnant by another man. He accepted a post as tutor to the Maharaja of Jaipur's son for a year and proposed taking his children to India with him. Davidson contracted someone to take on Stiffkey while he was away but his wife then decided she wanted to keep the family together, and the rector's permission to go was cancelled. However, since he had already contracted someone to take over his parish, he remained in London for that year with the family till they could all return to his parish.
When they returned to Stiffkey in 1921, he continued his trips down to London to save young women from prostitution. He would approach girls in the streets and claimed to have saved many from a life of vice by helping them find jobs, particularly in the theatre.
s of £39 11s 1d on the tithes paid to the church. The local Justices of the Peace
ordered him committed to jail and Davidson was unable to find the £100 sureties to keep himself on bail pending an appeal because, he said, locals "were afraid of offending certain persons with whom I have got into difficulties through taking a strong line of action". Davidson won a temporary order from the High Court to prohibit his arrest.
The High Court ruled that he should not have been asked to pay rates on church property when he had not received the tithes to pay them with. Many clergy suffered the same difficulty at the time due to an overhaul of the tithe system to placate landowners who objected to paying them. The rector still retained some of his after the changes and he was allowed to declare bankruptcy
as an alternative to jail. The terms of the settlement obliged him to pay a large part of the income of the rectory to his creditors. All his income went through trustees from that time and what wasn't paid to creditors went directly to his wife. Hence it seems improbable that he could have spent it on girls in London, as was later claimed at his trial. His money in London came from other bona fide
charity sources for which he had to make account.
service. Major Philip Hamond
, one of the landowners of Morston, who had disliked Davidson since he refused to allow him to be churchwarden
in 1919 and had had several further altercations with him since, was furious and accused Davidson of insulting the war dead.
Hamond discovered, through a clergy relative, that if Davidson was accused of immorality the church would have to investigate. A complaint was made to Henry Dashwood, solicitor to the Church of England and adviser to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners
. It is not certain if this was done by the Bishop of Norwich
, the Rt Revd Bertram Pollock
or by Hamond through a relative who was a rural dean
. There are no letters of complaint from the bishop to Dashwood at any time. Later letters confirm that nobody in the bishop's office was aware that he was under investigation until they received a notification of his impending trial a year later. The investigation was directed by Dashwood from London. He visited Hamond in early January 1931 and also met the churchwarden of Stiffkey who told him the rector was the best priest they ever had and warned Dashwood that he would find no one to say a bad word against him.
Dashwood then began investigating Davidson's activities in London and he hired the Arrows Detective Agency to follow the rector. Again the private detectives uncovered little; of the 40 girls they interviewed only one would say anything against him and then only when drunk (she recanted when sober).
Almost a year had gone by and a lot of money had been spent without result. Dashwood was under pressure and was being threatened with the Bar Council
for the way he was conducting the investigation, threatening and mistreating the girl whom they got drunk and who was so traumatised that she tried to commit suicide. In December 1931, Dashwood attempted to get the rector to sign an open confession to immorality while denying him access to the bishop and the right to know of what he was being accused. The rector refused and immediately offered his resignation to the bishop in return for a church investigation into any accusations against him; his life was an open book he wrote; all the bishop had to do was ask. His family's advice was recorded and sent in to the bishop as well and remains in the archive. He offered to step down if his parishioners wanted him to and they refused.
In a final meeting with the bishop he tried once more to offer to resign in return for a church investigation. He claimed that it would do the church harm to allow the case to come to court. The bishop replied he was entirely in Dashwood's hands and the rector should sign the confession or go to trial. The rector asked how he could possibly sign a confession to charges his bishop couldn't even remember; if that was the choice then he could only choose trial.
Charges under the Clergy Discipline Act 1892 were served on the rector on 20 January 1932, with a Consistory Court
trial date set for 1 February. The rector barely had 10 days to find himself a defence team and no money to do it with.
Dashwood sent detectives to serve sub poenas on everyone the rector knew. At the last moment his bishop changed his mind and agreed to accept his resignation rather than a trial but Dashwood released charges to one London newspaper to ensure the bishop could not withdraw. The newspapers were able to write stories that conveyed the impression of guilt.
Davidson later requested a trial in camera
so he could present a defence. It was denied him. He never gave interviews to the press even after the trial but he did write a series of articles himself for the Empire News
called "Why I am fighting" when the paper offered to defend him. It was quite usual for the media to come in when a defendant in a major trial had no money and offer to pay for his defence in return for exclusive access. In the rector's case a top counsel was retained, but the prosecution successfully sued for contempt of court
so the paper and its counsel were obliged to withdraw. He finally got a Jewish defence team which offended the judge who considered a consistory court to be a court of Christian morals.
When the Daily Herald published its story it was fined £50 for contempt of court. The Empire News, to which Davidson had given a series of articles, was fined £100. Davidson was cleared of contempt.
. Harris claimed the reason Davidson had missed his train on Remembrance Day was that he was "trying to kiss me all the time". Evidence in the form of letters between them support the rector's claim that he never disguised the fact that he was a priest.
His defence was that his work in London had been authorised by his bishop, and that only Harris had actually given evidence of immorality, she having been paid by the prosecution. He admitted to trying to help up to 1,000 girls with advice and sometimes money (one woman, Rose Ellis, had her treatment for syphilis
paid for by Davidson). He had connections with the film industry and could get girls claiming to be actresses parts as extras. The rector's family including his daughter Patricia gave evidence that some of the girls mentioned in evidence had visited the family at Stiffkey and that neither she nor her mother had objected. The hearing lasted 26 days and attracted large crowds.
The prosecution produced a photograph of Davidson standing talking to a 15-year-old girl who had her back to the camera; she was wearing a black shawl but was naked underneath. Davidson claimed he had been set up and that he had been offered money for posing with two of his acquaintances in the hope that the publicity would be helpful to his case. The photograph was never examined for authenticity and neither he nor the girl knew how it had been taken. However, the photographs showed a white line down the centre of them which could indicate that they were faked as he claimed.
On 8 July Davidson was convicted on all five charges. The chancellor of the diocese said that Davidson's evidence was "a tissue of reckless, deliberate falsehoods".
After Davidson had exhausted his appeals, he was defrocked at Norwich Cathedral
on 21 October 1932.
A final appeal to the Archbishop of Canterbury failed. Davidson tried to speak at a meeting of the Church Assembly in 1936 but was told by the archbishop that he had no right to speak.
was advertised. The massed crowds at his exhibition caused an obstruction and the police arrested the promoter Luke Gannon for causing it, and Davidson for aiding and abetting him. Both had to give undertakings "that the barrel business with Mr Davidson will cease"; they were fined 40s. each.
However, Davidson's contact with the law was not entirely as the defendant; after his last service at Stiffkey he was assaulted by Major Philip Hamond, churchwarden at Morston and the man who had initiated the original complaint against Davidson. Davidson had called at Hamond's house, apparently to ask for a church key, but Hamond did not wish to speak to him and told him "Clear out, or I'll kick you out!". Hamond then kicked the Rector off the step, stating at the Magistrates' court that it was "a kick of finality and contempt". Hamond also kicked a companion of Davidson's, Clinton Gray-Fisk. He was convicted of two counts of assault and fined 20 shillings on each plus the court costs. Local legend states that Hamond received many letters from sympathisers paying part of his fine, and that one enclosed a packet of hobnails with a request that he put those into the soles of his boots for next time.
Davidson then went to Blackpool to live off his notoriety. He would appear either in a barrel or being apparently roasted in an oven while a figure dressed as a devil prodded him with a pitchfork. In August 1935 he was summonsed again, this time by Blackpool Corporation, for attempting suicide
by fasting
– an entertainment again promoted by Gannon. Davidson appeared in court in ecclesiastical robes, described as "an ex-clergyman of no fixed abode". This time, however, he was found not guilty: the court did not believe that he was intending to take his life. He then successfully sued the Blackpool Corporation for false arrest and malicious prosecution and was awarded £382 in damages. Late in 1936 he was fined for trespassing on Victoria Station
. On 20 July 1937 he was arrested by two policemen after exiting a lion's cage, for not paying the fine and was subsequently given 15 days to pay £7 8s.
, where he was billed as "A modern Daniel
in a lion's den". He would enter a cage with a lion called Freddie and a lioness called Toto, and talk for about ten minutes about the injustice he felt had been meted out to him. On 28 July, he was moving through his act when he accidentally tripped on the tail of the lioness. Presumably perceiving this as an attack, Freddie the lion attacked and mauled him. Renee Somer, the 16-year-old lion attendant, entered the cage and fought the lion back using a 3 ft whip and an iron bar.
Davidson was taken to Skegness Cottage Hospital with a neck injury and broken collar-bone and lacerations on his upper body. The lion had mauled him at the neck leaving a gash behind his left ear.
A coroner's jury returned a verdict of death by misadventure.
Davidson was buried in Stiffkey churchyard. Thousands crammed into the village to attend the funeral service. Round the sides of his grave, in gold lettering, is a favourite quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson
which says "For on Faith in Man and genuine Love of Man all searching after Truth must be founded".
with David Wright wrote a two-act treatment A Life in Bedrooms, produced in Edinburgh in 1967 and later as The Stiffkey Scandals of 1932 on BBC2 TV and at Queen's Theatre in London in 1968, which trod a middle ground on Davidson's guilt or innocence. This was subsequently revived as The Prostitute's Padre at Norwich Playhouse
in 1997.
A musical And God Made the Little Green Apple was staged at the Stables Theatre, Manchester in 1969. Stuart Douglas wrote a play in 1972 The Vicar of Soho which portrays Davidson as a politically naive, but well-intentioned social reformer. Ken Russell
made a 1990 underground film Lion's Mouth based on the scandal; the central character is a female journalist on the Skegness Sentinel. A 2009 stage production The Missionary's Position gives an amusing variety music hall style portrayal of Davidson as a naive buffoon but leaves his guilt open to question.
John Walsh
's novel about Davidson's life, Sunday at the Cross Bones, was published on 8 May 2007.
The 1982 film, The Missionary
starring Michael Palin
tells a similar story but is set in the Edwardian period.
Many documents concerning the case are now in the public arena, except his personal letters and papers which remain with his family. The documents have been used by Davidson's descendants and the present priest at Stiffkey as evidence that he was not guilty of the charges which were found proved against him. A BBC regional documentary in 2004 showed their attempts to posthumously exonerate him.
The death of Davidson has echoes of the unlikely death of Hannah Twynnoy
, killed by a tiger in England.
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
, often referred to as the "Rector of Stiffkey". In 1932 he was defrocked on charges of immorality. He died after he was attacked by a lion in a cage.
Background
Davidson came from a clerical family and could count 27 clergy relatives including an Archbishop of CanterburyArchbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
, Randall Davidson. His father, the Reverend Francis Davidson, came from a wealthy Birmingham family but poured his money into building the new parish of St Mary's in Sholing
Sholing
Sholing, previously Scholing, is a district on the eastern side of the city of Southampton in southern England. It is located between the districts of Bitterne, Thornhill and Woolston....
, Southampton to which he had been appointed in 1866 and also on his wife who was severely ill all her life. There was little left to finance his son's studies. Davidson was educated at the Banister Court School in Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
and the Whitgift School
Whitgift School
Whitgift School is an independent day school educating approximately 1,400 boys aged 10 to 18 in South Croydon, London in a parkland site.- History and grounds :...
in Croydon
Croydon
Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...
, moving there to live with his maternal aunts and grandmother.
During his years at Whitgift he formed a small group of amateur actors with other boys and they would organise fundraising events for his father's parish and, later, for other churches in the Southampton area. When Davidson left Whitgift in 1894 he and his friends decided to spend their pre-university gap year
Gap year
An expression or phrase that is associated with taking time out to travel in between life stages. It is also known as sabbatical, time off and time out that refers to a period of time in which students disengage from curricular education and undertake non curricular activities, such as travel or...
becoming professional entertainers. They toured the provinces and were invited to appear at the Steinway Hall
Steinway Hall
Steinway Hall is the name of buildings housing concert halls, showrooms and sales departments for Steinway & Sons pianos. The first Steinway Hall was opened 1866 in New York City. Today, Steinway Halls and Steinway-Häuser are located in world cities such as New York City, London, Hamburg, Berlin,...
in London in 1895.
Student days
Davidson's father wanted him to join the priesthood, and he enlisted the help of influential friends to push his son towards that calling. Davidson had intended being ordained but had undergone a crisis of conscience due to church opposition to the work of the Toynbee HallToynbee Hall
Toynbee Hall is a building in Tower Hamlets, East London which is the home of a charity working to bridge the gap between people of all social and financial backgrounds, with a focus on eradicating poverty and promoting social inclusion....
Mission in the East End of London. After three years he realised the stage was not a very conscientious way of life for him and, having saved enough to begin studies, he entered Exeter College
Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...
, Oxford.
Davidson was allowed to continue his stage career while he studied Theology. However, due to his absences and exam failure, Exeter required him to leave in 1901. Davidson obtained a place at Grindle's Hall instead, where he obtained a Bachelor's
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
and a Master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in the normal five-year span, though half of his time was spent away from college.
He joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society
Oxford University Dramatic Society
The Oxford University Dramatic Society is the principal funding body and provider of theatrical services to the many independent student productions put on by students in Oxford, England...
, where he formed a lifelong friendship with Reginald Kennedy-Cox who would later found the Dockland Settlement in the East End. They used to arrange gatherings of artists for Sunday teas in Kennedy-Cox's rooms and at one of these Davidson met his future wife. He stood out in debates and his views on church reform caught the eye of the Bishop of Stepney
Bishop of Stepney
The Bishop of Stepney is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of London, in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title takes its name after Stepney, an inner-city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets...
, Arthur Winnington-Ingram
Arthur Winnington-Ingram
Arthur Foley Winnington-Ingram KCVO PC was Bishop of London from 1901 to 1939.-Early life and career:He was born in Worcestershire, the fourth son of the Revd Edward Winnington-Ingram and of Louisa...
who later became Bishop of London and was to remain one of Davidson's supporters at the trial and until Davidson's death. He also became president of the Oxford University Chess Club
Oxford University Chess Club
The Oxford University Chess Club was founded at the University of Oxford in 1869 and is the oldest university chess club in the United Kingdom. The Club meets each Tuesday evening during University term time, from 7.30pm at St John's College...
, organising tours against other universities and representing Oxford in the annual chess matches against Cambridge in 1901, 1902 and 1903.
Ordination
In May 1903 he had his last professional stage employment and on 21 September 1903 he was ordained as a priest in the Church of England. His first curacyCurate
A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure of souls of a parish. In this sense "curate" correctly means a parish priest but in English-speaking countries a curate is an assistant to the parish priest...
was at the Guards Chapel (Holy Trinity) at Windsor
Windsor, Berkshire
Windsor is an affluent suburban town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is widely known as the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British Royal Family....
and then from August 1905 he was a curate
Curate
A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure of souls of a parish. In this sense "curate" correctly means a parish priest but in English-speaking countries a curate is an assistant to the parish priest...
of St Martin-in-the-Fields
St Martin-in-the-Fields
St Martin-in-the-Fields is an Anglican church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. Its patron is Saint Martin of Tours.-Roman era:Excavations at the site in 2006 led to the discovery of a grave dated about 410...
. Davidson's appointment as Rector of Stiffkey
Stiffkey
Stiffkey is a village and civil parish on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the A149 coast road, some east of Wells-next-the-Sea, west of Blakeney, and north-west of the city of Norwich....
St John with Stiffkey St Mary and Morston
Morston
Morston is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk.It covers an area of and had a population of 86 in 42 households as of the 2001 census.For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of North Norfolk....
was announced in July 1906. Stiffkey and Morston are rural parishes on the north coast of Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
. In October 1906 after a six-year engagement, he married Moyra ('Molly') Saurin.
He was popular in his Norfolk parishes where he was the only resident landowner; Marquess Townshend who owned all the land other than the glebe
Glebe
Glebe Glebe Glebe (also known as Church furlong or parson's closes is an area of land within a manor and parish used to support a parish priest.-Medieval origins:...
lived in London and rarely came up to his estates in Norfolk. The rector looked after the villagers' needs, whether they went to his church or not. He visited everyone each week and he did special tours at Michaelmas to ensure they all had enough to pay their rents; he would pay the money due if they didn't. His diminutive stature (he was 5'3") led his parishioners to nickname him 'Little Jim'.
He maintained his connections with the theatrical world and kept up with theatre friends all his life. He was the first chaplain of the Actors' Church Union of Central London while he was still at St Martin-in-the-Fields until 1918. At the request of a school friend, Maundy Gregory
Maundy Gregory
Arthur Maundy Gregory was a British theatre producer and political fixer who is best remembered for selling honours for Prime Minister David Lloyd George. He may also have been involved with the Zinoviev Letter, the disappearance of Victor Grayson, and the suspicious death of his platonic...
, he invested in a disastrous revival of the comic opera Dorothy
Dorothy (opera)
Dorothy is a comic opera in three acts with music by Alfred Cellier and a libretto by B. C. Stephenson. The story involves a rake who falls in love with his disguised fiancée.It was first produced at the Gaiety Theatre in London on in 1886...
at the Waldorf Theatre in 1909.
He served as a Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
from 1916-20. When he returned, his wife Molly was pregnant by another man. He accepted a post as tutor to the Maharaja of Jaipur's son for a year and proposed taking his children to India with him. Davidson contracted someone to take on Stiffkey while he was away but his wife then decided she wanted to keep the family together, and the rector's permission to go was cancelled. However, since he had already contracted someone to take over his parish, he remained in London for that year with the family till they could all return to his parish.
When they returned to Stiffkey in 1921, he continued his trips down to London to save young women from prostitution. He would approach girls in the streets and claimed to have saved many from a life of vice by helping them find jobs, particularly in the theatre.
Financial difficulties
Davidson first hit the headlines in 1925 when he fell into debt. Stiffkey and Morston had been sold by the Marquess in 1911 and the two new landowners refused to pay the tithes, forcing the rector into debt. He was prosecuted for not paying poor ratePoor rate
In England and Wales, under the 1601 Elizabethan Poor Law the poor rate was a tax on property levied on the parish which was used to provide poor relief to the parish poor. The tax was collected by local magistrates or Overseers of the Poor, and later by Local Authorities....
s of £39 11s 1d on the tithes paid to the church. The local Justices of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
ordered him committed to jail and Davidson was unable to find the £100 sureties to keep himself on bail pending an appeal because, he said, locals "were afraid of offending certain persons with whom I have got into difficulties through taking a strong line of action". Davidson won a temporary order from the High Court to prohibit his arrest.
The High Court ruled that he should not have been asked to pay rates on church property when he had not received the tithes to pay them with. Many clergy suffered the same difficulty at the time due to an overhaul of the tithe system to placate landowners who objected to paying them. The rector still retained some of his after the changes and he was allowed to declare bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
as an alternative to jail. The terms of the settlement obliged him to pay a large part of the income of the rectory to his creditors. All his income went through trustees from that time and what wasn't paid to creditors went directly to his wife. Hence it seems improbable that he could have spent it on girls in London, as was later claimed at his trial. His money in London came from other bona fide
Bona Fide
Bona Fide is a studio album from rock band Wishbone Ash. It is the first studio album in six years and is the only studio album to feature guitarist Ben Granfelt...
charity sources for which he had to make account.
Investigations begin
In 1930, Davidson missed the Remembrance DayRemembrance Day
Remembrance Day is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries since the end of World War I to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty. This day, or alternative dates, are also recognized as special days for war remembrances in many non-Commonwealth...
service. Major Philip Hamond
Philip Hamond
Major Philip Hamond, DSO and bar, MC was a British Army officer who played a prominent part in the downfall of the Rector of Stiffkey and later collected Norfolk folk songs....
, one of the landowners of Morston, who had disliked Davidson since he refused to allow him to be churchwarden
Churchwarden
A churchwarden is a lay official in a parish church or congregation of the Anglican Communion, usually working as a part-time volunteer. Holders of these positions are ex officio members of the parish board, usually called a vestry, parish council, parochial church council, or in the case of a...
in 1919 and had had several further altercations with him since, was furious and accused Davidson of insulting the war dead.
Hamond discovered, through a clergy relative, that if Davidson was accused of immorality the church would have to investigate. A complaint was made to Henry Dashwood, solicitor to the Church of England and adviser to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners
Ecclesiastical Commissioners
Ecclesiastical Commissioners were, in England and Wales, a body corporate, whose full title is Ecclesiastical and Church Estates Commissioners for England. The commissioners were authorized to determine the distribution of revenues of the Church of England, and they made extensive changes in how...
. It is not certain if this was done by the Bishop of Norwich
Bishop of Norwich
The Bishop of Norwich is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Norwich in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers most of the County of Norfolk and part of Suffolk. The see is in the City of Norwich where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided...
, the Rt Revd Bertram Pollock
Bertram Pollock
The Rt Rev Bertram Pollock, KCVO, DD was an Anglican Bishop in the first half of the 20th century.Born on 6 December 1863 he was educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Cambridge. Ordained in 1890. he was a Master and Chaplain at Marlborough and later Headmaster of Wellington College...
or by Hamond through a relative who was a rural dean
Rural Dean
In the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church, a Rural Dean presides over a Rural Deanery .-Origins and usage:...
. There are no letters of complaint from the bishop to Dashwood at any time. Later letters confirm that nobody in the bishop's office was aware that he was under investigation until they received a notification of his impending trial a year later. The investigation was directed by Dashwood from London. He visited Hamond in early January 1931 and also met the churchwarden of Stiffkey who told him the rector was the best priest they ever had and warned Dashwood that he would find no one to say a bad word against him.
Dashwood then began investigating Davidson's activities in London and he hired the Arrows Detective Agency to follow the rector. Again the private detectives uncovered little; of the 40 girls they interviewed only one would say anything against him and then only when drunk (she recanted when sober).
Almost a year had gone by and a lot of money had been spent without result. Dashwood was under pressure and was being threatened with the Bar Council
Bar council
A bar council , in a Commonwealth country and in the Republic of Ireland, the Bar Council of Ireland is a professional body that regulates the profession of barristers together with the King's Inns. Solicitors are generally regulated by the Law society....
for the way he was conducting the investigation, threatening and mistreating the girl whom they got drunk and who was so traumatised that she tried to commit suicide. In December 1931, Dashwood attempted to get the rector to sign an open confession to immorality while denying him access to the bishop and the right to know of what he was being accused. The rector refused and immediately offered his resignation to the bishop in return for a church investigation into any accusations against him; his life was an open book he wrote; all the bishop had to do was ask. His family's advice was recorded and sent in to the bishop as well and remains in the archive. He offered to step down if his parishioners wanted him to and they refused.
In a final meeting with the bishop he tried once more to offer to resign in return for a church investigation. He claimed that it would do the church harm to allow the case to come to court. The bishop replied he was entirely in Dashwood's hands and the rector should sign the confession or go to trial. The rector asked how he could possibly sign a confession to charges his bishop couldn't even remember; if that was the choice then he could only choose trial.
Charges under the Clergy Discipline Act 1892 were served on the rector on 20 January 1932, with a Consistory Court
Consistory court
The consistory court is a type of ecclesiastical court, especially within the Church of England. They were established by a charter of King William I of England, and still exist today, although since about the middle of the 19th century consistory courts have lost much of their subject-matter...
trial date set for 1 February. The rector barely had 10 days to find himself a defence team and no money to do it with.
Dashwood sent detectives to serve sub poenas on everyone the rector knew. At the last moment his bishop changed his mind and agreed to accept his resignation rather than a trial but Dashwood released charges to one London newspaper to ensure the bishop could not withdraw. The newspapers were able to write stories that conveyed the impression of guilt.
Davidson later requested a trial in camera
In camera
In camera is a legal term meaning "in private". It is also sometimes termed in chambers or in curia.In camera describes court cases that the public and press are not admitted to...
so he could present a defence. It was denied him. He never gave interviews to the press even after the trial but he did write a series of articles himself for the Empire News
Empire News
The Empire News was a Sunday newspaper in the United Kingdom.The newspaper was founded in 1884 in Manchester as The Umpire. A penny newspaper, it was the first successful provincial Sunday newspaper in England. Owned by H. S. Jennings, the Umpire was subtitled "A Sporting, Athletic, Theatrical...
called "Why I am fighting" when the paper offered to defend him. It was quite usual for the media to come in when a defendant in a major trial had no money and offer to pay for his defence in return for exclusive access. In the rector's case a top counsel was retained, but the prosecution successfully sued for contempt of court
Contempt of court
Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...
so the paper and its counsel were obliged to withdraw. He finally got a Jewish defence team which offended the judge who considered a consistory court to be a court of Christian morals.
When the Daily Herald published its story it was fined £50 for contempt of court. The Empire News, to which Davidson had given a series of articles, was fined £100. Davidson was cleared of contempt.
Church disciplinary trial
Davidson's trial began on 29 March 1932 at Church House, Westminster, before the chancellor of the diocese of Norwich. This was a church disciplinary trial, not a criminal prosecution, but it was a public sensation. Gwendoline Harris (known as Barbara Harris) who was 16 years old when she first met Davidson, claimed the rector had posed as her uncle and paid her rent, later arranging for her to live at his London home in Macfarlane Road, Shepherd's BushShepherd's Bush
-Commerce:Commercial activity in Shepherd's Bush is now focused on the Westfield shopping centre next to Shepherd's Bush Central line station and on the many small shops which run along the northern side of the Green....
. Harris claimed the reason Davidson had missed his train on Remembrance Day was that he was "trying to kiss me all the time". Evidence in the form of letters between them support the rector's claim that he never disguised the fact that he was a priest.
His defence was that his work in London had been authorised by his bishop, and that only Harris had actually given evidence of immorality, she having been paid by the prosecution. He admitted to trying to help up to 1,000 girls with advice and sometimes money (one woman, Rose Ellis, had her treatment for syphilis
Syphilis
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...
paid for by Davidson). He had connections with the film industry and could get girls claiming to be actresses parts as extras. The rector's family including his daughter Patricia gave evidence that some of the girls mentioned in evidence had visited the family at Stiffkey and that neither she nor her mother had objected. The hearing lasted 26 days and attracted large crowds.
The prosecution produced a photograph of Davidson standing talking to a 15-year-old girl who had her back to the camera; she was wearing a black shawl but was naked underneath. Davidson claimed he had been set up and that he had been offered money for posing with two of his acquaintances in the hope that the publicity would be helpful to his case. The photograph was never examined for authenticity and neither he nor the girl knew how it had been taken. However, the photographs showed a white line down the centre of them which could indicate that they were faked as he claimed.
On 8 July Davidson was convicted on all five charges. The chancellor of the diocese said that Davidson's evidence was "a tissue of reckless, deliberate falsehoods".
After Davidson had exhausted his appeals, he was defrocked at Norwich Cathedral
Norwich Cathedral
Norwich Cathedral is a cathedral located in Norwich, Norfolk, dedicated to the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Formerly a Catholic church, it has belonged to the Church of England since the English Reformation....
on 21 October 1932.
A final appeal to the Archbishop of Canterbury failed. Davidson tried to speak at a meeting of the Church Assembly in 1936 but was told by the archbishop that he had no right to speak.
Aftermath
With the loss of his clerical income, he went back to public entertainment, even before he had exhausted appeals. In September 1932 his appearance fasting in a barrel at BlackpoolBlackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
was advertised. The massed crowds at his exhibition caused an obstruction and the police arrested the promoter Luke Gannon for causing it, and Davidson for aiding and abetting him. Both had to give undertakings "that the barrel business with Mr Davidson will cease"; they were fined 40s. each.
However, Davidson's contact with the law was not entirely as the defendant; after his last service at Stiffkey he was assaulted by Major Philip Hamond, churchwarden at Morston and the man who had initiated the original complaint against Davidson. Davidson had called at Hamond's house, apparently to ask for a church key, but Hamond did not wish to speak to him and told him "Clear out, or I'll kick you out!". Hamond then kicked the Rector off the step, stating at the Magistrates' court that it was "a kick of finality and contempt". Hamond also kicked a companion of Davidson's, Clinton Gray-Fisk. He was convicted of two counts of assault and fined 20 shillings on each plus the court costs. Local legend states that Hamond received many letters from sympathisers paying part of his fine, and that one enclosed a packet of hobnails with a request that he put those into the soles of his boots for next time.
Davidson then went to Blackpool to live off his notoriety. He would appear either in a barrel or being apparently roasted in an oven while a figure dressed as a devil prodded him with a pitchfork. In August 1935 he was summonsed again, this time by Blackpool Corporation, for attempting suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
by fasting
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
– an entertainment again promoted by Gannon. Davidson appeared in court in ecclesiastical robes, described as "an ex-clergyman of no fixed abode". This time, however, he was found not guilty: the court did not believe that he was intending to take his life. He then successfully sued the Blackpool Corporation for false arrest and malicious prosecution and was awarded £382 in damages. Late in 1936 he was fined for trespassing on Victoria Station
Victoria station (London)
Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex. It is named after nearby Victoria Street and not Queen Victoria. It is the second busiest railway terminus in London after Waterloo, and includes an air terminal for passengers...
. On 20 July 1937 he was arrested by two policemen after exiting a lion's cage, for not paying the fine and was subsequently given 15 days to pay £7 8s.
Death
For the summer season in 1937 Davidson worked at Thompsons' Amusement Park in SkegnessSkegness
Skegness is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. Located on the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, east of the city of Lincoln it has a total resident population of 18,910....
, where he was billed as "A modern Daniel
Daniel
Daniel is the protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible. In the narrative, when Daniel was a young man, he was taken into Babylonian captivity where he was educated in Chaldean thought. However, he never converted to Neo-Babylonian ways...
in a lion's den". He would enter a cage with a lion called Freddie and a lioness called Toto, and talk for about ten minutes about the injustice he felt had been meted out to him. On 28 July, he was moving through his act when he accidentally tripped on the tail of the lioness. Presumably perceiving this as an attack, Freddie the lion attacked and mauled him. Renee Somer, the 16-year-old lion attendant, entered the cage and fought the lion back using a 3 ft whip and an iron bar.
Davidson was taken to Skegness Cottage Hospital with a neck injury and broken collar-bone and lacerations on his upper body. The lion had mauled him at the neck leaving a gash behind his left ear.
A coroner's jury returned a verdict of death by misadventure.
Davidson was buried in Stiffkey churchyard. Thousands crammed into the village to attend the funeral service. Round the sides of his grave, in gold lettering, is a favourite quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
which says "For on Faith in Man and genuine Love of Man all searching after Truth must be founded".
Posthumous treatment
The strange story of the Rector of Stiffkey has been the subject of several fictionalised retellings. David WoodDavid Wood (actor)
David Wood OBE is an English-born actor and writer, called "the National Children's Dramatist" by The Times.He was educated at Chichester High School For Boys and Worcester College, Oxford....
with David Wright wrote a two-act treatment A Life in Bedrooms, produced in Edinburgh in 1967 and later as The Stiffkey Scandals of 1932 on BBC2 TV and at Queen's Theatre in London in 1968, which trod a middle ground on Davidson's guilt or innocence. This was subsequently revived as The Prostitute's Padre at Norwich Playhouse
Norwich Playhouse
The Norwich Playhouse is a theatre in St George's Street, Norwich, Norfolk, England. It opened in 1995 in a nineteenth century building that was once a maltings, and is a venue for theatre, comedy, music and other performing arts. It seats 300. It has as its patron actor and comedian Stephen...
in 1997.
A musical And God Made the Little Green Apple was staged at the Stables Theatre, Manchester in 1969. Stuart Douglas wrote a play in 1972 The Vicar of Soho which portrays Davidson as a politically naive, but well-intentioned social reformer. Ken Russell
Ken Russell
Henry Kenneth Alfred "Ken" Russell was an English film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. He attracted criticism as being obsessed with sexuality and the church...
made a 1990 underground film Lion's Mouth based on the scandal; the central character is a female journalist on the Skegness Sentinel. A 2009 stage production The Missionary's Position gives an amusing variety music hall style portrayal of Davidson as a naive buffoon but leaves his guilt open to question.
John Walsh
John Walsh
John Edward Walsh is an American television personality, criminal investigator, human and victim rights advocate and formerly the host, as well as creator, of America's Most Wanted...
's novel about Davidson's life, Sunday at the Cross Bones, was published on 8 May 2007.
The 1982 film, The Missionary
The Missionary
The Missionary is a 1982 British comedy directed by Richard Loncraine, produced by George Harrison, Denis O'Brian, Michael Palin and Neville C. Thompson. The film stars Palin as the Rev...
starring Michael Palin
Michael Palin
Michael Edward Palin, CBE FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries....
tells a similar story but is set in the Edwardian period.
Many documents concerning the case are now in the public arena, except his personal letters and papers which remain with his family. The documents have been used by Davidson's descendants and the present priest at Stiffkey as evidence that he was not guilty of the charges which were found proved against him. A BBC regional documentary in 2004 showed their attempts to posthumously exonerate him.
The death of Davidson has echoes of the unlikely death of Hannah Twynnoy
Hannah Twynnoy
Hannah Twynnoy is reputedly the first person on record to have been killed by a tiger in Britain.Hannah Twynnoy was an early 18th-century barmaid working in a pub in the centre of the English market town of Malmesbury in Wiltshire....
, killed by a tiger in England.
Sources
- The Reason Why by Harold Francis Davidson (Deane Printing Works, London, 1935)
- The Age of Illusion: England in the Twenties and Thirties, 1919-1940 by Ronald BlytheRonald BlytheRonald Blythe is an English writer and editor, best known in his native England for his Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village , a portrait of agricultural life in Suffolk from the turn of the century to the 1960s...
(London, Hamish Hamilton, 1963; 2001 reprint is ISBN 1-84212-258-4); chapter on Davidson, pp. 134–154. - The Prostitutes' Padre by Tom Cullen (Bodley Head, London, 1975)
- The Troublesome Priest by Jonathan Tucker (Michael Russell Publishing, 2007)
- Biography of the Rector by Karilyn Collier (2004)
External links
- BBC Inside Out profile arguing for Davidson's innocence
- Norfolk History and Past Times
- Rector of Stiffkey website written by his granddaughter, Karilyn Collier