There's an old chestnut of a chuckle which has a young man enquiring of a parson - "Vicar, do you save fallen women?"  When the vicar replies "Yes!" the young man responds "Then will you save one for me?"

Seventy years ago on 30th July 1937 one of the Church of England's more infamous clergymen died.  Curiously enough, July 30th is the day on which the church remembers a great social reformer - William Wilberforce, the M.P. whose name will be forever associated with the abolition of slavery, that day is also the day on which the Reverend Harold Davidson departed this life.  His name will also be forever associated with freeing the chains of those who were oppressed and forced by circumstance into another form of slavery.

Harold Davidson became Rector of Stiffkey in Norfolk in 1906.  Like Zacchaeus he was very small of stature - standing only 5 feet 3 inches in height and his parishioners nicknamed him "Little Jimmy".  The Rector of Stiffkey had a very deep social conscience - he also had quite a laissez-faire attitude to his parochial duties.  Like Prime Minister Gladstone before him - he spent a great deal of his ministry trying to save "fallen women" and spent much of his time in London, rescuing poor "unfortunate girls" who had descended into prostitution.  He would sometimes spend as much as six days a week in London, catching the train back to Norfolk early on Sunday morning and arriving in Stiffkey just in time to deliver his sermon and then kiss his wife goodbye before returning again to London.

Now, I wonder what you, my dear people would say, if the Vicar of Kelvedon and Feering were to spend six days a week in Soho?  My guess is that you wouldn't be best pleased!  Maybe a letter or two would wing its way to the Diocesan Bishop.  That's exactly what happened in Stiffkey.  Although, he was in fact deeply loved by the majority of his parishioners - who probably revelled in having what might be called "a celebrity parson" as their incumbent - he made enemies of his more powerful parishioners - particularly Major Philip Hammond, with whom he had crossed swords and who wrote to the Bishop of Norwich - the Right Reverend Bertram Pollock about the Rector's nocturnal ministry.  A great scandal erupted and a Consistory Court was held to put on trial the man who was known as the "Prostitutes Padre".

Now I seem to remember that in the gospels our Blessed Lord was often accused by the self-righteous Scribes and Pharisees of associating with and ministering to prostitutes and sinners.  It's not those who are fit and well who are in need of a physician but the sick, the halt and the lame.  In actual fact - "Little Jimmy" saved more than 1,000 "fallen women" and found them other gainful employment.  Yet he was put on trial for "habitually associating with women of a loose character for immoral purposes".  The trial in 1932 received massive national publicity and Press coverage - even relegating the doings of Herr Hitler in Germany from the front pages of the newspapers.  During the court hearing in his defence the Rector said - "I believe with all my soul that if Christ were born again in London in the present day, He would constantly be found walking in Piccadilly."  Having read much about the Rector of Stiffkey and his unusual life style and particular ministry, I am convinced of his innocence of anything immoral.  I believe that he was indeed, like the Master he served, a champion of the poor and outcast.  However - outward respectability - was a "virtue" held in high regard in 1930s Britain - Harold Davidson was found guilty as charged and subsequently defrocked at a ceremony held on 21st October 1932 in Norwich cathedral.

He was, of course, his own worst enemy and in many ways "a fool for Christ".  He was also a great showman with a love of the theatrical life.  Deprived of his living - what was he to do?  Why, he joined the circus of course!  The defrocked clergyman proved to be quite an attraction.  At first he appeared on Blackpool's golden mile - he preached his innocence from a barrel and those who paid tuppence could hear him denounce the Archbishop Lang of Canterbury and Bishop Pollock of Norwich.  Incidentally Bishop Pollock was also the diocesan who had run-ins with Father Hope Patten of Walsingham, the restorer of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.  Cosmo Gordon Lang was also the Archbishop at the time of the Abdication.  After Edward VIII had renounced the throne in order to marry Mrs. Wallis Simpson, this particular Scottish Archbishop participated in a broadcast on the wireless which was widely regarded as "kicking a man while he was down".  This particular archiepiscopal error of judgement earned him the sobriquet - "Old Lang Swine".

Harold described himself as a modern day Diogenes.  You will remember that in classical times Diogenes the Cynic was a beggar on the streets of Athens and made a virtue out of extreme poverty and took up his abode in a tub.  He was a relentless campaigner and sought to debunk corrupt social values and institutions.

Following his time in Blackpool - Harold then moved on to Skegness on the Lincolnshire coast.  The message of professed innocence was the same - but this time the location was in a cage with a mangy, docile old lion called Freddie.  He was billed as a modern day Daniel in the lion's den.  Perhaps Freddie had heard the sermon once too often and on 28th July 1937, when the padre happened accidentally to tread on Freddie's tail, the lion grabbed the diminutive defrocked parson by the scruff of the neck and stalked around the cage shaking poor Harold back and forth.  A showman to the end his final words were - "Inform the London papers!"

In the days of the Early Church many Christians were thrown to the lions because they refused to renounce their faith and bow down to worship the Emperor.  On being rescued from the mauling he was taken to Skegness Cottage Hospital where he fell into a coma and died at 1.20 p.m. on Friday, July 30th.

As a sign of the affection in which the infamous Rector of Stiffkey was held - over 3,000 people attended his funeral in that remote Norfolk backwater and saw him laid to rest in Stiffkey churchyard.  However, that is not the end of the story of the "Prostitutes' Padre" - now 70 years since he died, his granddaughter is mounting a campaign and petitioning the present Archbishop of Canterbury - Rowan Williams - to posthumously clear her grandfather's name of any wrong doing.  I hope that she succeeds.  He was in many ways very foolish - yet how thin the dividing line so often is between courage and foolishness.  He was undoubtedly eccentric - but how much we need eccentrics in the church and in politics to add to the gaiety of the nation and the rich tapestry of life.
 
 

Every Blessing,

Father David