| Type: | Priest |
| Honorific Prefix: | The Very Reverend |
| David Edwards | |
| Provost of Southwark | |
| Church: | Church of England |
| Diocese: | Diocese of Southwark |
| Ordination: | 1954 (deacon) 1955 (priest) |
| Birth Name: | David Lawrence Edwards |
| Birth Date: | 20 January 1929 |
| Birth Place: | Cairo, Egypt |
| Death Place: | Winchester, England |
| Residence: | Anglicanism |
| Partner: | --> |
| Previous Post: | --> |
| Education: | King's School, Canterbury |
| Alma Mater: | Magdalen College, Oxford Westcott House, Cambridge |
David Lawrence Edwards (20 January 1929 – 25 April 2018) was an Anglican priest, scholar and church historian. He served as the Dean of Norwich, Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sub-Dean at Westminster Abbey and Provost of Southwark, and was a prolific author.[1]
Edwards was born in Cairo, where his father was an inspector of schools. He was educated at The King's School, Canterbury, and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took a BA in 1952 and MA in 1956.[2]
Edwards was elected a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, for a seven-year period from 1952 to 1959. He spent the academic year of 1953–54 studying at Westcott House, Cambridge, and was ordained deacon in 1954. He served as a tutor at Westcott House (1954–55) and he was ordained priest in 1955.
In 1955 Edwards began his ordained ministry as an assistant curate at St John's, Hampstead, and also began his work with the Student Christian Movement as its secretary, remaining in both positions until 1958.
Edwards was assistant curate of St Martin-in-the-Fields (1958–66), editor for the Student Christian Movement Press (1959–66) and General Secretary of the Student Christian Movement (1965–66).
From 1966 until 1970, Edwards was the Dean of King's College, Cambridge. He was also a Six Preacher of Canterbury Cathedral (1969–76).
Edwards was a canon of Westminster Abbey and the rector of St Margaret's, Westminster (1970–78). He was additionally Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons (1972–78) and Sub-Dean of Westminster Abbey (1974–78). He was Chairman of the Churches' Council on Gambling (1970–78) and of Christian Aid (1971–78). He was the Dean of Norwich from 1978 to 1983 and the Provost of Southwark from 1983 to 1994.
Edwards was for many years the principal reviewer and leader writer for the Church Times.[3]
Edwards retired to Winchester, becoming an honorary chaplain at Winchester Cathedral in 1995. He died on 25 April 2018.
In 1990 the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, conferred upon Edwards the Lambeth degree of Doctor of Divinity. He wore the academic dress of his former headmaster, Fred Shirley, (who had himself been a Doctor of Divinity) and of whom Edwards wrote a biography, F. J. Shirley: An Extraordinary Headmaster (1969).
Also in 1990, he was appointed an honorary fellow of the South Bank Polytechnic (later South Bank University and now called London South Bank University).
In the 1995 New Year Honours, Queen Elizabeth II appointed him an Officer of the Order of the British Empire "for services to the Church of England."
Edwards wrote more than 60 books, including:
The most recent include: