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So shines a good dean …

by Glyn Paflin

Dean Walter Hussey: a portrait by Graham Sutherland (1965) © not advert
Dean Walter Hussey: a portrait by Graham Sutherland (1965)

22nd Otter Memorial Paper, Chichester Deans: Continuity, commitment, and change at Chichester Cathedral 1902-2006

 Paul Foster, editor

Otter Memorial Papers, at The University of Chichester (to which make out any cheques), Bishop Otter Campus, Chichester PO19 6PE (£12.50; 978-0-948765-22-3; add £1 for p. & p.).

A DEANERY that has boasted A. S. Duncan-Jones and Walter Hussey has acquired a cachet. As Michael Manktelow’s preface to a new collection of pen-portraits by varied hands points out, these Chichester notables, with their predecessor Dean Hannah, spanned three-quarters of a century — offering enviable stability in the interests of the cathedral’s liturgy, music, and art.

Dean Hannah began well by abolishing entry charges for visitors, “a stance that continues today”, and establishing a concern for “good order”. Duncan-Jones, coming in 1929 from Primrose Hill by way of Knightsbridge, is remembered not only for his Chichester Customary, a meticulous directory of ritual and ceremonial whose influence spread far and wide, but also for his contributions on church music and international affairs.

His letter that appeared in The Times on 7 July 1933 is something of a corker; but later, after he discovered that the Herr Hitler he had interviewed was not a man of his word, he wrote a Macmillan War Pamphlet, The Crooked Cross, that put its author in the company of Harold Laski and A. P. Herbert.

On Hussey’s legendary artistic patronage, Tom Devonshire Jones adds a reflection; and Hussey’s former secretary, Hilary Bryan-Brown, reminisces. The line continues with the education-minded team-builder Dean Holtby, who died in 2003; and Dean Treadgold and his successor, Dean Frayling, who are interviewed. An appendix champions the Victorian Dean Burgon as a textual scholar who challenged Westcott and Hort.

The contributors to this also include its editor, Paul Foster, Donald Gray, and Duncan-Jones’s daughter Ursula Baily, who died last year. It is well illustrated.


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