Paul de Labilliere
Dean of Westminster
In office1938 – 1946 (d.)
PredecessorWilliam Foxley Norris
SuccessorAlan Don
Other post(s)Bishop of Knaresborough and Archdeacon of Leeds (1934–1938)
Orders
Ordination1902 (deacon); 1903 (priest)
by Francis Chavasse (Liverpool)
Consecration1934
by William Temple (York)
Personal details
Born(1879-01-22)22 January 1879
Died28 April 1946(1946-04-28) (aged 67)
Westminster Hospital, City of Westminster, UK
NationalityBritish
DenominationAnglican
SpouseEster Morkel
Childrentwo
Alma materMerton College, Oxford

Paul Fulcrand Delacour De Labillière (22 January 1879 – 28 April 1946) was the second Bishop of Knaresborough from 1934 to 1937; and, subsequently, Dean of Westminster.[1]

Career

Born on 22 January 1879 into a legal family (his father was a barrister of the Middle Temple)[1] he was educated at Harrow[2] and Merton College, Oxford (where he was later elected an Honorary Fellow, in 1945).[1] He was made deacon in Advent 1902 (21 December) at the Pro-Cathedral,[3] and ordained priest the following Advent (20 December 1903) at Edge Hill Parish Church (i.e. St Mary's) — both times by Francis Chavasse, Bishop of Liverpool.[4]

After ordination in 1903 he served as a curate in Liverpool and Plymouth before his appointment as Chaplain to the Bishop of Durham and then missionary work in South Africa.[1] In South Africa he met and married Ester Morkel; they had a son and a daughter.[5]

He was successively Clerical Superintendent of the Liverpool Scripture Readers, Chaplain of Wadham College, Oxford,[6] Lecturer at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford and Vicar of Christ Church, High Harrogate before a 4-year stint as Suffragan Bishop of Knaresborough and Archdeacon of Leeds.[7][8] He was consecrated a bishop on St James's Day 1934 (25 July), by William Temple, Archbishop of York, at York Minster.[9] He served as Bishop of Knaresborough until his installation as Dean of Westminster on Candlemas 1938 (2 February).[10]

A quiet[11] but effective priest, his final professional appointment was as Dean of Westminster.[12] De Labillière had profound experiences of both World Wars. In the Great War he had earned a Mention in Despatches when he served as a chaplain from 1916 to 1919, from December 1917 in Egypt.[13] In the Second World War, when he was Dean of Westminster, a German bomb in 1941 destroyed part of the Abbey and the Deanery. George VI’s Private Secretary, Tommy Lascelles, noted in his diary for 24 November 1942, ‘The Dean of Westminster lunched with me .... I like him, and have always admired him for his unruffled fortitude the day after the Germans blew his beautiful deanery and all his possessions into dust and ashes during one of the worst Blitz-nights.[14] De Labillière was sufficiently well-regarded to be a candidate for Archbishop of Canterbury when Cosmo Lang retired in 1942. De Labillière was recognised as a scholar and preacher but ‘lacks weight’;[15] William Temple was appointed.

De Labilliere is also remembered for a last minute change in the Abbey's Armistice Day service in 1938 after Kristallnacht when he included a prayer for the Jewish people 'in their trouble.' [16]

The Deanery was destroyed in the 1941 Blitz[17] and it is said the King and Queen offered him alternative accommodation at Buckingham Palace but he found a new place to live close to the Abbey.

As Dean of Westminster, De Labillière was also ex officio Dean of the Order of the Bath; he died in post[18] of a brain haemorrhage on 28 April 1946.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Levens, R.G.C., ed. (1964). Merton College Register 1900-1964. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. p. 353.
  2. ^ “Who was Who” 1897-1990 London, A & C Black, 1991 ISBN 0-7136-3457-X
  3. ^ "The Advent Ordinations". Church Times. No. 2083. 24 December 1902. p. 782. ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 20 April 2021 – via UK Press Online archives.
  4. ^ "The Advent Ordinations". Church Times. No. 2135. 24 December 1903. p. 822. ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 20 April 2021 – via UK Press Online archives.
  5. ^ Simpson, Geoff (30 January 2015). The History of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association: Commemorating the Few. ISBN 9781473852310.
  6. ^ A period interrupted with wartime service as a chaplain to the forces (during which he was mentioned in despatches)
  7. ^ The Times, Thursday, Nov 22, 1905; pg. 14; Issue 38184; col A Ecclesiastical Intelligence
  8. ^ "New Bishop of Knaresborough". Church Times. No. 3725. 15 June 1934. p. 730. ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 20 April 2021 – via UK Press Online archives.
  9. ^ "Consecration at York Minster". Church Times. No. 3731. 27 July 1934. p. 91. ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 20 April 2021 – via UK Press Online archives.
  10. ^ "Westminster Abbey. Installing the New Dean". Church Times. No. 3915. 4 February 1938. p. 114. ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 20 April 2021 – via UK Press Online archives.
  11. ^ He listed his recreation in Who's Who as "silence"
  12. ^ The Times, Thursday, Nov 18, 1937; pg. 14; Issue 47845; col F The Deanery Of Westminster Appointment Of Bishop Of Knaresborough
  13. ^ The Times obituary,29.4.1946
  14. ^ Lascelles Diaries, Duff Hart-Davis (ed.)
  15. ^ TNA PREM5/276
  16. ^ Mazzenga, M. (20 July 2009). American Religious Responses to Kristallnacht. ISBN 9780230623309.
  17. ^ "How Westminster Abbey survived the Blitz". BBC News. 28 April 2011.
  18. ^ "Church News. Clerical Obituary". Church Times. No. 4345. 3 May 1946. p. 268. ISSN 0009-658X. Retrieved 20 April 2021 – via UK Press Online archives.
Church of England titles Preceded byLucius Smith Bishop of Knaresborough 1934–1938 Succeeded byJohn Bateman-Champain Preceded byWilliam Foxley Norris Dean of Westminster 1938–1946 Succeeded byAlan Don
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