John Basil Lee Jellicoe (5 February 1899 – 24 August 1935) was a priest in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

best known for his work as a

housing Housing refers to a property containing one or more Shelter (building), shelter as a living space. Housing spaces are inhabited either by individuals or a collective group of people. Housing is also referred to as a human need and right to ...

reformer.

Early life and education

John Basil Lee Jellicoe was born in

Chailey Chailey is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. It is located 7 miles north of Lewes, on the A272 road from Winchester to Canterbury. The Prime Meridian passes just to the east of Chailey. The parish consis ...

, Sussex on 5 February 1899, the eldest son of Bethia Theodora and Thomas Harry Lee Jellicoe. His father was rector of St Peter's Chailey, and a cousin of

John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, (5 December 1859 – 20 November 1935) was a Royal Navy officer. He fought in the Anglo-Egyptian War and the Boxer Rebellion and commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland ...

. His maternal grandfather was Sir John Boyd, of Maxpoffle, Roxburgh,

lord provost of Edinburgh The Right Honourable Lord Provost of Edinburgh is elected by and is the convener of the City of Edinburgh Council and serves not only as the chair of that body, but as a figurehead for the entire city, ex officio the Lord-Lieutenant of ...

from 1888 to 1891. Jellicoe was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College. A graduate of Magdalen College, Oxford, he later studied at St. Stephen's House, Oxford and was ordained as an Anglican priest. Father_Basil_Jellicoe_housing

Career

Jellicoe became Missioner at the Magdalen College Mission run by the College in the parish of St Mary's Church, Somers Town, St Mary's Church in Somers Town, London, then an area of exceptional overcrowding and poverty between Euston railway station, Euston and St Pancras railway station, St Pancras main line railway stations. In 1924, he was founder of the St Pancras Housing Association (originally the St Pancras House Improvement Society), run for many years by Irene Barclay as the honorary secretary. He also founded several other housing associations in East London, St Marylebone, Kensington, Sussex and Cornwall. He toured the country in his small car fundraising and selling loan stock to fund these projects. Father_Basil_Jellicoe_plaque

Basil Jellicoe died in Uxbridge on 24 August 1935, aged only 36, after suffering ill heath for a decade.

Commemoration

A plaque was unveiled in his honour in Camden in 2014. He is commemorated in the Diocese of London with a memorial day on 24 August. The annual Jellicoe Sermon at Magdalen College is named in his honour. A video of Jellicoe interacting with Londoners in a pub in 1930 is available online through the University of South Carolina Library's digital archive.

Notes

Sources

Dictionary of National Biography entry
1899 births 1935 deaths People from Lewes District 20th-century English Anglican priests History of the London Borough of Camden Housing reformers British housing rights activists Anglo-Catholic clergy English Anglo-Catholics People educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College {{England-reli-bio-stub