The Rev Hugh Boswell Chapman (5 November 1853 – 1 April 1933) was a British Liberal politician and Anglican priest. He was a Progressive member of the London County Council from 1889 to 1892.
| Hugh Boswell Chapman | |
| Honorific Prefix: | The Rev |
| Birth Date: | 5 November 1853 |
| Death Date: | 1 April 1933 |
| Education: | Tonbridge School |
Chapman was born in London in 1853,[1] the son of Henry Chapman and his wife Priscilla (née Wakefield). Gen Sir Edward Chapman (1840-1926) and Sir Arthur Wakefield Chapman (1849-1926) were older brothers. He was the grandson of the philanthropist and statistician Edward Wakefield and great-grandson of the Quaker philanthropist Priscilla Wakefield.
He was educated at Tonbridge School[2] and Keble College, Oxford (BA, 1875).[3]
He was ordained deacon in 1878 and priest in 1881.[3] He served his title under the Rev the Hon Adelbert Anson (subsequently a bishop in Canada) at St Mary Magdalene, Woolwich (1878-1880) and then at St Paul's, Newington (also known as St Paul's, Lorrimore Square) (1881-1885),[3] arriving at the latter shortly after the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Thorold, had imposed an Evangelical Vicar on the extreme Anglo-Catholic parish, prompting the mass exodus of the congregation to the nearby St Agnes, Kennington Park.[4] [5] During his time at Lorrimore Square he was Chaplain to the Forces in Egypt during the Anglo-Egyptian War of 1882.[3] He was Vicar of St Luke's, Camberwell (1885-1909) and then Chaplain at the Savoy Chapel (1909-1933).[3]
Chapman was a proponent of the Normyl treatment for alcoholism.[6] He was an active supporter of Father Damien's leper hospital in Hawaii.[7] He established a "Hugh Boswell" Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at St Luke's; the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Edward Talbot was initiated as a member in 1901.[8] St Luke's had a notable reputation under Chapman: Princess Mary, the Duchess of Teck (the mother of Queen Mary) was a regular visitor, and he was responsible for decorations being installed by John Ruskin's Century Guild of Artists, Herbert Horne, Frederic Shields, Selwyn Image, and Edward Burne-Jones.[9] (The church was bombed in 1941, and rebuilt.)[9]
The Savoy Chapel was widely known during Chapman's incumbency as a location where divorced persons were permitted to marry or to have their civil marriages blessed.[10] Notable weddings included that of Consuelo, Duchess of Marlborough and Lt Col Jacques Balsan in 1921[11] and Edith Stuyvesant Vanderbilt and Senator Peter Goelet Gerry in 1925.[12] A condition of such 'benedictory' services was that there be no publicity.[13] Nevertheless, in 1926 Chapman refused to marry Lord Sholto Douglas and Mrs Mendelssohn Pickles, on the basis they were the guilty parties in their respective divorces.[14] Chapman's successor as Chaplain, the Rev Cyril Cresswell, immediately brought an end to the marriage of divorced persons in the Chapel.[15]
Chapman was elected to the newly-formed London County Council for Camberwell North (in which St Luke's was situated) in 1889 as a Progressive.[2] He did not seek re-election in 1892. His brother, Cecil Maurice Chapman, was a Moderate Party member for Chelsea from 1895 to 1898.[2]
Chapman was the author of a number of books.
Chapman was unmarried.[10] During his incumbency at the Savoy Chapel, he lived at the National Club, at 12 Queen Anne’s Gate.[16] [10] He died in a nursing home in 1933, aged 79.[17]