Harold Davidson
Harold Francis Davidson, generally known as the Rector of Stiffkey, was a Church of England priest who in 1932, after a public scandal, was convicted of immorality by a church court and defrocked. Davidson strongly protested his innocence and, to raise funds for his reinstatement campaign, he exhibited himself in a barrel on the Blackpool seafront. He performed in other sideshows of a similar nature, and died in Skegness after being attacked by a lion in whose cage he was appearing in a seaside spectacular.
Before his ordination in 1903, Davidson had a brief career on the London stage as an entertainer. As a young curate he became actively involved with charitable activity among London's poor, an interest he maintained following his appointment in 1906 as rector of the rural Norfolk parish of Stiffkey. After the First World War, in which he served as a naval chaplain, he devoted himself primarily to his London work. Styling himself the "Prostitutes' Padre", his declared mission was the rescue of young girls he considered in danger of falling into vice. In this role he approached and befriended hundreds of girls and, although there was little direct evidence of improper behaviour, Davidson was frequently found in compromising situations. His neglect of his local duties over many years strained relations with his parishioners in Stiffkey; after a formal complaint, the Bishop of Norwich instituted disciplinary proceedings through a consistory court. Davidson's defence was severely compromised by his eccentric conduct, and was damaged beyond repair when the prosecution produced a photograph of him with a near-naked teenage girl.
Davidson's later career as a showman earned him much notoriety but little money. His attempts at legal redress were unsuccessful, despite recognition even in church circles that he had not been fairly treated by the consistory court. After his death the case continued to attract public interest for decades, through fictional, stage and screen versions of the story. His descendants have continued to assert his innocence of any wrongdoing, and later commentators have generally accepted that however unwise and inappropriate his behaviour, his basic motives were genuine and he did not deserve the humiliations he endured.
Family background and childhood
Harold Davidson was born on 14 July 1875 in Sholing, near the south coast port of Southampton, to the Reverend Francis Davidson and his wife Alice. Francis Davidson was the vicar of St Mary's, Sholing, a post he had held since 1866; as many as 27 members of the Davidson family were or had been Anglican clergy. Alice Davidson, née Hodgskin, was a great-niece of the educator and Rugby School headmaster Thomas Arnold. Sholing was a poor parish, with a mixed population of dock labourers and itinerant workers, many of whom had little interest in churchgoing. Francis Davidson, described by Harold Davidson's earliest biographer, Tom Cullen, as "a tiny man ... with a luxuriant beard that gave him the appearance of a gnome", served the parish for 48 years. Although he could be pugnacious when necessary, according to a former parishioner he was a true pastor, willing to offer help whatever the circumstances.Davidson's family assumed that he would follow his father in becoming a priest and he was brought up strictly. When he was six he began attending Banister Court School in Southampton, an establishment founded initially for the sons of Merchant Navy officers. In 1890 Harold was sent to live with two maiden aunts in Croydon while he attended the Whitgift School. Here he became an enthusiastic amateur actor, encouraged by his friendship with a fellow-pupil, Leon Quartermaine, who later won recognition on the stage and in films. In February 1894 the pair appeared together in a school production of the farce Sent to the Tower. Under his aunts' influence, Davidson became a part-time worker at Toynbee Hall, an East End charity founded by Samuel and Henrietta Barnett which attracted many volunteers from schools and universities. Because of these distractions he neglected his school work and failed to win a scholarship that would enable him to attend Oxford University and study for holy orders. In the face of his father's disapproval, he decided to pursue a career as a stage comedian.
Theatre, Oxford and ordination
Davidson's principal theatrical genre was that of the "drawing-room entertainer"; Cullen describes this kind of performance as "An answer to the demand of a rising middle class which was neither cultured nor resourceful, but which wanted desperately to be diverted". Within a few months of leaving Whitgift in 1894, Davidson appeared on the London stage, at Steinway Hall in Lower Seymour Street, performing a comic routine. He was reasonably successful and in the next few years found provincial engagements with Masonic lodges, literary societies and similar social organisations. Cullen suggests that his greatest triumph was as a comic actor in a touring production of Brandon Thomas's popular farce Charley's Aunt. Davidson played the part of Lord Fancourt Babberley, who masquerades as the rich aunt of a fellow-Oxford undergraduate—a frenetic role for which Cullen believes Davidson was eminently suitable.During his theatrical days, Davidson maintained high standards of personal morality, observed strict teetotalism and gave regular Bible readings to the elderly in the towns in which he performed on tour. He later gave an account of an incident from November 1894 when he was performing in London. While walking along the Thames Embankment in a thick fog, he said, he encountered a 16-year-old girl who was about to throw herself into the Thames. After preventing her suicide attempt, Davidson learned that she had run away from home near Cambridge, was penniless and without shelter. He paid her fare home: "Her pitiful story made a tremendous impression on me ... I have ever since ... kept my eyes open for opportunities to help that kind of girl."
In 1898 Davidson finally bowed to his father's wish that he should study for holy orders, after the intervention of the Reverend Basil Wilberforce, grandson of the abolitionist William Wilberforce and a friend of the Davidson family. Wilberforce was an alumnus of Exeter College, Oxford, and used his influence to secure Davidson a place there despite the latter's lack of qualifications. At Oxford, Davidson's behaviour was notably eccentric; he displayed considerable energy but disregarded rules, was persistently unpunctual and regularly failed his examinations. He continued to appear on the stage when he could, and decorated the walls of his rooms with autographed pictures of actresses. He once claimed he had left behind a salary of £1000 per year, for a relatively paltry £3 per week as a curate. By 1901 his academic inadequacies were such that he was required to leave Exeter College, although he was allowed to continue studying for his degree at Grindle's Hall, a cramming establishment. He finally passed his examinations in 1903, at the age of 28, and that year was ordained by the Bishop of Oxford—after some reluctance on the part of the bishop to accept so unpromising a candidate.
In 1901, when Annie Horniman's travelling theatrical company visited Oxford, Davidson fell in love with one of the company's leading actresses, Moyra Cassandra Saurin, an attractive blonde and blue-eyed woman from County Meath in Ireland. The couple were quickly engaged, but the relationship was stormy and was several times broken off. There was no question of marriage until Davidson was fully established in his new profession. His first church appointment was a curacy at Holy Trinity Church, Windsor, Berkshire, with an additional role as assistant chaplain to the Household Cavalry at Combermere Barracks. In 1905 he was transferred to London as curate at St Martin-in-the-Fields, where his enthusiasm and industry drew approving comments.
Rector of Stiffkey
Early years
Davidson's appointment in 1906 as rector of the Norfolk parish of Stiffkey with Morston came through the patronage of the 6th Marquess Townshend, whose family had a long history of public and political service in the county. The appointment was probably given in recognition of Davidson's role in reconciling the fierce opposition of the Townshend family to the marquess's proposed marriage to Gwladys Sutherst, the daughter of a bankrupt Yorkshire businessman; as curate of St Martin's, Davidson had officiated at the wedding on 8 August 1905. The Stiffkey living was highly desirable, with of glebe land, a large Georgian rectory, and an income in 1906 of £503 per annum, rising during Davidson's incumbency to £800.Stiffkey, close to the northern Norfolk coast, lies on both sides of the River Stiffkey, with extensive salt marshes on its seaward side. At the time of Davidson's arrival in 1906, the village, with a population of around 350, was generally impoverished. Although, according to Davidson's 2007 biographer Jonathan Tucker, the village was well-supplied, and did have a few shops and public houses. Davidson was quickly on good terms with most of the villagers, who referred to him with affection as "Little Jimmy"—he was only tall. He was less well-regarded by the local gentry, including the main landowner, Colonel Groom, who fell out with Davidson after the priest rebuked him for keeping a mistress.
On 9 October 1906, now settled into a prosperous living, Davidson married Molly Saurin. The Stiffkey rectory became a family home, as children were born at regular intervals. Notwithstanding his parochial and domestic responsibilities, Davidson quickly adopted the habit of spending much of the week in London, engaged in various kinds of social work. Through his friendship with Reginald Kennedy-Cox, whom he had met at Oxford, Davidson became involved with the Malvern Mission, forerunner of the Dockland Settlements, of which he later became a trustee. He also became chaplain to the Actors' Church Union, based at St Paul's, Covent Garden, and was frequently to be found backstage in London's theatres, ministering to the needs of showgirls—sometimes with an unwelcomed degree of persistence. Between 1910 and 1913 he expanded this work to Paris, to which he made regular visits, sometimes acting as a chaperone for dancers recruited by the Folies Bergère. Many out-of-work and would-be actresses were invited to stay at the Stiffkey rectory, sometimes as many as 20 at a time, to the consternation of Molly Davidson and of some of the local establishment who feared for the morals of local farmhands. Among those most disapproving of Davidson's conduct was Major Philip Hamond, a churchwarden at Morston, who later became Davidson's principal adversary.