Harry Woollcombe

Henry St John Stirling Woollcombe[1] (27 December 1869 – 1 December 1941) was the inaugural Bishop of Whitby from 1923[2] until 1939; and also of Selby. Born into a clerical family,[3] he was educated at Clifton College and Keble College, Oxford before being ordained in 1895. After a curacy in Stepney he became head of the Oxford House University Settlement in nearby Bethnal Green. A brief spell as chaplain to Cosmo Gordon Lang (Archbishop of York) was followed by a decade as the parish priest of Armley. Promotion to be the Sub Dean of Diocese of Coventry in 1922 was swiftly followed by elevation to the episcopate.[4] After 16 years at Whitby he made a sideways move to become Bishop of Selby- a post he held only for 18 months.[5] His Times obituary noted his capacity for "getting on with and getting the best out of all conditions of men.[6]

References

1. The Peerage Genealogical Progeny
2. ‘WOOLLCOMBE, Rt Rev. Henry St John Stirling’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2007 , accessed 8 July 2012
3. His nephew, Kenneth, became Bishop of Oxford.
4. The Times, Saturday, 4 August 1923; p. 9; Issue 43411; col A "Canon Woollcombe, Sub Dean of St Michael’s Cathedral Church, Coventry to be inaugural Bishop of Whitby"
5. The Times, Friday, 21 June 1940; p. 9; Issue 48648; col D "Ecclesiastical News The Bishop Of Selby Resigning."
6. The Times, Tuesday, 2 December 1941; p. 7; Issue 49098; col E "Dr H Woollcombe, late Bishop of Selby"