Alfred Gurney Explained

Alfred Gurney (1843–1898) was an English cleric and writer.

Early life

The second son of John Hampden Gurney, he was a brother of Edmund Gurney the psychic researcher. His father having died in 1862, the five children were brought up by Russell and Emelia Gurney, their uncle and aunt.[1] [2]

Gurney was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, matriculating there in 1862, and graduating B.A. in 1866, M.A. in 1869. He entered the Inner Temple in 1867.[3] [4]

Curate

Changing career, Gurney went into the church. Richard William Randall at All Saints, Clifton offered him a chance 1872 to be ordained and become his curate. This was a false start, because Charles Ellicott as bishop refused to ordain Gurney, citing Randall's ritualism.[5] Gurney then became curate to Arthur Wagner; in 1877 he was assistant curate at St Bartholomew's Church, Brighton.[6] [7] At this period of his life he met Ellen Beardsley, mother of Aubrey Beardsley; whom he later encouraged as an artist.[8]

Vicar of Pimlico

Gurney was from 1879 vicar of St Barnabas, Pimlico, in London—an 1850 church associated with the Oxford Movement—and became known for religious verse.[9] [10] He formed what has been called a "Catholic-minded community" around the church.[11]

Bringing in church music, Gurney formed a choir under Thomas Helmore. George Herbert Palmer was organist. Services used incense.[12]

During the 1890s Gurney had the original decoration of St Barnabas, by Thomas Cundy, elaborated by George Frederick Bodley. Glass by Charles Kempe and Ninian Comper was introduced, replacing that by William Wailes.[13]

Interests and connections

From 1882 Gurney was corresponding with Christina Rossetti.[14] She became his friend and occasional visitor.[15] He gave a lecture on her late brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1883 at Somerville College, Oxford, and wrote a work of criticism, A Dream of Fair Women.[16] Gurney was a Wagnerian, who wrote on Parsifal. In 1889 he travelled to Bayreuth to hear it performed, with his aunt Emilia Russell Gurney.[17] She was a prominent member of the "Cowper-Temple circle", a loose evangelical and ecumenical Christian group around William Cowper-Temple, 1st Baron Mount Temple and Georgiana Cowper-Temple, Lady Mount Temple, attending their "Broadlands conferences" from 1874 to 1888; and also a founder of the Kensington Society.[18] [19] Alfred Gurney attended the 1876 Broadlands conference.[20] He has also been considered a follower of Andrew Jukes.[21]

In 1891 Gurney encouraged the young, ailing Aubrey Beardsley, who was now working in London, to go into illustration; he was then supported by friends such as Aymer Vallance.[22] In 1897 Gurney was the dedicatee of Hymns and Carols for Christmas-tide by George Ratcliffe Woodward.[23]

Death

Gurney died in Roehampton, in 1898.[24]

Works

As a critic, Gurney was noted for religious interpretation of works that went further than the authors' intentions.[9] [34] [35]

Family

In 1866 Gurney married Alice Blanche Gibbs, daughter of William Gibbs, and they had two sons, Cyril, and William Hampden.[27] [36] [37] Alice died in 1871.[38]

Notes and References

  1. 56343. Elizabeth J. Morse. Morse.
  2. Book: Lesley Higgins. The Collected Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins: Diaries, Journals, and Notebooks. 27 August 2015. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-953400-5. 70.
  3. [s:Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715-1886/Gurney, Alfred]
  4. Book: Gordon Epperson. The Mind of Edmund Gurney. 1 January 1997. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. 978-0-8386-3720-3. 138.
  5. Book: John Fetherstonhough Briscoe. Henry Falconar Barclay Mackay. A Tractarian at Work: A Memoir of Dean Randall. 1932. Mowbray. 143.
  6. Book: Brocard Sewell. In the Dorian Mode: A Life of John Gray, 1866–1934. 1983. Tabb House. 978-0-907018-18-6. 77. registration.
  7. Book: The Church Union Gazette. 1877. English Church Union. 173.
  8. Book: Peter Raby. Aubrey Beardsley and the Nineties. 1998. Collins & Brown. 978-1-85585-611-0. 17.
  9. Book: Anne Dzamba Sessa. Richard Wagner and the English. 1979. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. 978-0-8386-2055-7. 124–5.
  10. Web site: St. Barnabas Church, St. Barnabas Street, Pimlico — the first Tractarian church. 17 December 2015.
  11. Book: Chris Snodgrass. Aubrey Beardsley: Dandy of the Grotesque. 1995. Oxford University Press, Incorporated. 978-0-19-509062-8. 156.
  12. Book: Chris Snodgrass. Aubrey Beardsley: Dandy of the Grotesque. 1995. Oxford University Press, Incorporated. 978-0-19-509062-8. 308.
  13. Book: University of London Dominic Janes Lecturer in Art History Birkbeck College. Victorian Reformation: The Fight Over Idolatry in the Church of England, 1840-1860. 11 March 2009. Oxford University Press, USA. 978-0-19-970283-1. 60.
  14. Book: Christina Rossetti. Christina Rossetti. Ardent Media. 120. GGKEY:J92Y5LQ78K4.
  15. Book: Christina Georgina Rossetti. The Letters of Christina Rossetti: 1882-1886. registration. 1997. University Press of Virginia. 978-0-8139-1929-4. 76.
  16. Book: Christina Georgina Rossetti. The Letters of Christina Rossetti: 1882-1886. registration. 1997. University Press of Virginia. 978-0-8139-1929-4. 122.
  17. Book: Letters of Emilia Russell Gurney. 1902. 212.
  18. Book: Susan Petrilli. Signifying and Understanding: Reading the Works of Victoria Welby and the Signific Movement. 2009. Walter de Gruyter. 978-3-11-021850-3. 143 note 7.
  19. 56343. Elizabeth J.. Morse. Gurney, Emilia Russell.
  20. Book: James Gregory. Reformers, Patrons and Philanthropists: The Cowper-temples and High Politics in Victorian England. 30 November 2009. I.B.Tauris. 978-0-85771-625-5. 324 note 158.
  21. Web site: The Household of Faith; portraits and essays. Russell. George William Erskine. George William Erskine Russell . 1903. Internet Archive. Hodder and Stoughton. 213–4. 18 December 2015. London.
  22. Web site: A History of Painting. VIII The Modern Genius. Macfall. Haldane. 1911. Dana Estes & Co.. 261. Boston. 18 December 2015.
  23. 76311. Gordon. Giles. Woodward, George Ratcliffe.
  24. Book: Malcolm Easton. Aubrey and the Dying Lady: a Beardsley riddle. 1972. Secker and Warburg. 159.
  25. Book: Alfred Gurney. Verses. 1870. W. H. Hodge.
  26. Web site: Alfred Gurney (Gurney, Alfred, 1845-1898), The Online Books Page. 17 December 2015.
  27. Web site: Alfred Gurney, ??-1900/1901, The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler :: Biography. 17 December 2015.
  28. [s:A Christmas Faggot]
  29. Book: Alfred Gurney. Parsifal: A Festival Play by Richard Wagner: a Study. 1888. Kegan Paul, Trench, Company.
  30. Book: Alfred Gurney. Our Catholic Inheritance in the Larger Hope: An Essay. 1888. K. Paul, Trench.
  31. Book: R. S.. Alfred Gurney. George Chapman. A Narrative of a Devoted Life. 1893.
  32. Web site: The Oxford Church Movement: sketches and recollections. Wakeling. George. 1895. Internet Archive. S. Sonnenschein. 234. 18 December 2015. London.
  33. Book: Amor Ordinatus. Essays and Addresses. By the Late Alfred Gurney ... Edited by His Sister, with the Help of H. H. Jeaffreson. 1905. London.
  34. Book: Andrea Rose. The Germ: Literary Magazine of the Pre-Raphaelites. 1901. Ashmolean Museum. 978-1-85444-024-2. 20.
  35. Web site: Seeing the Sacred: Burne-Jones's Reception as a 'Great Religious Painter'. 18 December 2015.
  36. Book: Sir Bernard Burke. A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. 1871. Harrison. 499.
  37. Book: Bernard Burke. A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. 1906. Рипол Классик. 978-5-88372-227-0. 636.
  38. Web site: Alice Blanche Gibbs, Mrs Alfred Gurney (1843–1871) and her Child 13883, National Trust Collections. 17 December 2015.

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