{{short description|Liberal politician in London and Anglican clergyman}} {{Use British English|date=March 2022}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}
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.
{{Infobox person | name = Hugh Boswell Chapman | honorific_prefix = The Rev | birth_date = 5 November 1853 | death_date = 1 April 1933 | education = Tonbridge School }}
==Early life== Chapman was born in London in 1853,<ref>West Ham Registry Office, December quarter 1853, Vol 4A, page 29.</ref> 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<ref name="auto2">Hughes-Hughes, WO, ''The Register of Tonbridge School from 1820 to 1893'', (1893: Richard Bentley) p 141.</ref> and Keble College, Oxford (BA, 1875).<ref name="auto">''Crockford's Clerical Directory'', 1932, p 223.</ref>
==Clerical career== He was ordained deacon in 1878 and priest in 1881.<ref name="auto"/> 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),<ref name="auto"/> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.archive.spectator.co.uk/article/4th-december-1880/3/the-parishioners-of-st-pauls-lorrimore-square-walw|title=''Spectator'': "The parishioners of St. Paul's, Lorrimore Square, Walworth, are not in a very happy frame of mind", 4 December 1880|access-date=29 March 2022}}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.stagneskenningtonpark.co.uk/about-st-agnes-church.html|title=St Agnes, Kennington Park: Our History|access-date=29 March 2022}}</ref> During his time at Lorrimore Square he was Chaplain to the Forces in Egypt during the Anglo-Egyptian War of 1882.<ref name="auto"/> He was Vicar of St Luke's, Camberwell (1885-1909) and then Chaplain at the Savoy Chapel (1909-1933).<ref name="auto"/>
Chapman was a proponent of the Normyl treatment for alcoholism.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article137724140 |title=CAN DRUNKENNESS BE CURED? |newspaper=Jerilderie Herald and Urana Advertiser |volume=XI |issue=1136 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=9 March 1906 |accessdate=29 March 2022 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He was an active supporter of Father Damien's leper hospital in Hawaii.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47041327 |title=THE LEPER HOSPITAL. |newspaper=South Australian Register |volume=LIII |issue=13,129 |location=South Australia |date=11 December 1888 |accessdate=29 March 2022 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_1901_03_01_250|title=''Church Times'', 1 March 1901, p 250|access-date=29 March 2022}}</ref> 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.<ref name="auto3">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_1953_03_20_219|title=''Church Times'': "HM Queen Mary's Mother's Church", 20 March 1953, p 219|access-date=29 March 2022}}</ref> (The church was bombed in 1941, and rebuilt.)<ref name="auto3"/>
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.<ref name="auto1">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article183567174 |title=NOTED CHAPLAIN |newspaper=Glen Innes Examiner |volume=8 |issue=1165 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=15 August 1933 |accessdate=31 March 2022 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Notable weddings included that of Consuelo, Duchess of Marlborough and Lt Col Jacques Balsan in 1921<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GIST19210905.2.33|title=''Gisborne Times'', Volume LV, Issue 6175, 5 September 1921, Page 5|access-date=30 March 2022}}</ref> and Edith Stuyvesant Vanderbilt and Senator Peter Goelet Gerry in 1925.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WT19251223.2.103.15.17|title=''Waikato Times'', Volume 99, Issue 16681, 23 December 1925, Page 4 (Supplement)|access-date=30 March 2022}}</ref> A condition of such 'benedictory' services was that there be no publicity.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AG19220918.2.51|title=''Ashburton Guardian'', Volume XLIII, Issue 6944, 18 September 1922, Page 7|access-date=30 March 2022}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article239859486 |title=PARTIES IN DIVORCE |newspaper=The Labor Daily |issue=838 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=8 October 1926 |accessdate=29 March 2022 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Chapman's successor as Chaplain, the Rev Cyril Cresswell, immediately brought an end to the marriage of divorced persons in the Chapel.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD19330926.2.91|title=''Timaru Herald'', Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19604, 26 September 1933, Page 9|access-date=30 March 2022}}</ref>
==London County Council== 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.<ref name="auto2"/> He did not seek re-election in 1892. His brother, Cecil Maurice Chapman, was a Moderate Party member for Chelsea from 1895 to 1898.<ref name="auto2"/>
==Works== Chapman was the author of a number of books. *''The Seven Last Words of Love'' (1885: Griffith Farran & Co) *''Sermons in Symbols'' (1888: Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey & Co) *''Where is Christ?'' (1890: Swan Sonnenschein & Co) *''Steps to the Higher Life'' (1897: Swan Sonnenschein & Co) *''Proverbs in Practice'' (1909: F. H. Morland) *''At the Back of Things'' (1911: Duckworth & Co) *''The soul of women’s suffrage'' (1912: Corrigan & Wilson) *''Home Truths about the War'' (1917: G. Allen & Unwin)
==Personal life== Chapman was unmarried.<ref name="auto1"/> During his incumbency at the Savoy Chapel, he lived at the National Club, at 12 Queen Anne’s Gate.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/33942/page/3503|title=''London Gazette'', 23 May 1933, p 3503|access-date=30 March 2022}}</ref><ref name="auto1"/> He died in a nursing home in 1933, aged 79.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpressonline/view/pagview/ChTm_1933_04_07_418|title=''Church Times'': "Clerical Obituary", 7 April 1933, p 418|access-date=29 March 2022}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chapman, Hugh}} Category:People educated at Tonbridge School Category:Alumni of Keble College, Oxford Category:Members of London County Council Category:1853 births Category:1933 deaths Category:Progressive Party (London) politicians