The Henson Journals

[168]

Thursday, March 15th, 1923.

I received an invitation to address a meeting in Manchester presided over by Sir Thomas Inskip, and designed to resist the leading proposals for Prayer Bock Revision. I declined.

I motored to Durham, and confirmed 89 candidates in S. Giles's Church. After having tea with the Vicar (Aird) I motored to Darlington, and confirmed an old lady in her bed. Then I went to St James's Church, & confirmed 70 candidates.

Some 500 clergymen have signed a memorial to the Labour Party, expressing their adherence to it, and presented it by the hand of a deputation which included that incorrigible old madman, Jimmie Adderley, and the Revd T. C. Gobat, in whose church I officiated tonight . Gobat was ordained in 1887: he is therefore my exact contemporary in Holy Orders. He is the grandson of the hybrid Bishop of Jerusalem, whose consecration placed the last straw on the back of that expiring camel, Newman's Anglicanism! He told me that he was a cousin of old Mrs Story, the widow of Principal Story, who yet lives at the age of 94. Gobat is a tall pleasant–looking man, with a courteous manner. He is reputed to be a man of some literary distinction, i.e. he is widely read, and lectures well on his favourite authors. He is an ardent Socialist, and, at the same time, an ardent Anglo–Catholick. Personally, he is said to be a saint. His parishioners consist very largely of Roman Catholicks.

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