| Honorific-Prefix: | The Very Reverend |
| Death Date: | 25 February 1919 (aged 59) |
| Religion: | Anglican |
| Alma Mater: | Balliol College, Oxford |
| Birth Date: | 15 May 1859 |
| Diocese: | Norwich |
| Province: | Canterbury |
| Dean of Norwich | |
| Henry Charles Beeching | |
Henry Charles Beeching (15 May 1859 – 25 February 1919)[1] was a British clergyman, writer and poet, who was Dean of Norwich from 1911 to 1919.[2]
H. C. Beeching was born on 15 May 1859 in Sussex, the son of J. P. G. Beeching of Bexhill.[3] He was educated at the City of London School and at Balliol College, Oxford.[4] [5] He took holy orders in 1882, and began work in a Liverpool parish at Mossley Hill.[6] He was Rector of Yattendon from 1885 to 1900; Clark Lecturer at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1900; professor of Pastoral Theology at King's College London from 1900 to 1903; Chaplain of Lincoln's Inn from 1900 to 1903;[7] Canon of Westminster Abbey from October 1902 until 1911[8] and Dean of Norwich from 1911 until his death.[9] He wrote a book on Francis Atterbury.[10] To him is attributed the popular epigram on Benjamin Jowett:
First come I; my name is Jowett.
There's no knowledge but I know it.
I am master of this college:
What I don't know isn't knowledge.[11]
This is the first verse of The Masque of B-ll—l (1880), a scurrilous undergraduate production in 40 verses satirising Balliol figures. It was suppressed at the time. Later research has given Beeching credit for 19 of the verses.