Henry Donald Maurice Spence (Spence Jones from 1904; 14 January 1836 – 2 November 1917) was an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

dean and

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

in the last decades of the 19th century and the start of the 20th. The son of George Spence , Spence was born at

Pall Mall, London Pall Mall is a street in the St James's area of the City of Westminster, Central London. It connects St James's Street to Trafalgar Square and is a section of the regional A4 road (England), A4 road. The street's name is derived f ...

and educated at

Westminster School Westminster School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Westminster, London, England, in the precincts of Westminster Abbey. It descends from a charity school founded by Westminster Benedictines before the Norman Conquest, as do ...

and

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus") is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th c ...

, winning the Carus Prize in 1862 and 1866, and the Scholefield Prize in 1866, and graduating B.A. 1865, M.A. 1868, D.D. 1887. He was ordained deacon in 1865 and priest in 1866. In his academic career, Spence was Professor of English Literature and Modern Languages, and Hebrew Lecturer at St David's College Lampeter 1865–1870; Principal of Gloucester Theological College 1875–1877; and Professor of Ancient History at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

from 1906. In the church, he was Rector of St Mary de Crypt Church,

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

1870–1877, then Vicar and

Rural Dean In the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion as well as some Lutheran denominations, a rural dean is a member of clergy who presides over a "rural deanery" (often referred to as a deanery); "ruridecanal" is the corresponding adjective ...

of St Pancras 1877–1886, when he became Dean of Gloucester, a post he held until his death. As Dean, he banned performances of

Edward Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

's choral work ''

The Dream of Gerontius ''The Dream of Gerontius'', Opus number, Op. 38, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from The Dream of Gerontius (poem), the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man' ...

'' from

Gloucester Cathedral Gloucester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Peter and the Holy and Indivisible Trinity and formerly St Peter's Abbey, in Gloucester, England, stands in the north of the city near the River Severn. It originated with the establishme ...

from 1900 until 1910 because of

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

references in its text.Lewis, Geraint
"A Cathedral in Sound"
''Gramophone'', September 2008, p. 50 On 11 April 1871, Spence married Louise Madeline Maria, daughter of David Jones . He adopted the additional surname Jones (his wife's maiden name) in 1904.

Works

*''Talmudical Commentary on Genesis'', 1883 *''Cloister Life in Days of Cœur de Lion'', 1892 *''The Church of England: a History for the People'' (4 vols), 1904 *''The Early Christians in Rome'', 1910 *"The

Pulpit Commentary The ''Pulpit Commentary'' is a homiletic commentary on the Bible first published between 1880 and 1919

", 1909–1919

References

1836 births People educated at Westminster School, London Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Academics of the University of Wales, Lampeter Deans of Gloucester 1917 deaths {{ChurchofEngland-dean-stub