The Reverend Ernest Henry Shears (1849,

Streatham Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. Streatham was in Surrey ...

– 20 February 1917,

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...

) was an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

clergyman in South Africa. Ernest Henry Shears was the ninth son of James Henry Shears (1788-1855), a partner of James Shears and Sons, and Mary Mann (1810-1893). He was educated at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

and

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

, and in 1871 was ordained a deacon in the Church of England. After being ordained, he went to Natal in South Africa, where he became

Archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that o ...

of Durban (1887-1892). He then returned to England and eventually retired to

, where he died on 20 February 1917. On 14 January 1875 Ernest Shears married Mary Seawell Boulger, by whom he had three children, one of whom, Cuthbert Shears, also entered the Church. He was a cousin of Rev. Augustus Shears and Rev. Frederick Spurrell.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shears, Ernest Henry 1849 births 1917 deaths Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Alumni of King's College London People from Stafford Anglican archdeacons in Africa 19th-century English Anglican priests