Paul de Labilliere

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Paul de Labilliere
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

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

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

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. ISBN 0-7136-3457-X
  3. ISSN 0009-658X
    . Retrieved 20 April 2021 – via UK Press Online archives.
  4. ISSN 0009-658X
    . Retrieved 20 April 2021 – via UK Press Online archives.
  5. ISBN 9781473852310
    .
  6. 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. ISSN 0009-658X
    . Retrieved 20 April 2021 – via UK Press Online archives.
  9. ISSN 0009-658X
    . Retrieved 20 April 2021 – via UK Press Online archives.
  10. 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. ISBN 9780230623309
    .
  17. ^ "How Westminster Abbey survived the Blitz". BBC News. 28 April 2011.
  18. ISSN 0009-658X
    . Retrieved 20 April 2021 – via UK Press Online archives.
Church of England titles
Preceded by
Bishop of Knaresborough

1934–1938 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Dean of Westminster
1938–1946 		Succeeded by
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