Revd.

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

James Seymour Denis Mansel , formerly

Deputy Clerk of the Closet The Deputy Clerk of the Closet is the Domestic Chaplain to the Monarch, Sovereign of the United Kingdom. The office was created in 1677. Since 1931, the Deputy Clerk is also the sub-dean of the Chapel Royal (under the Clerk of the Closet). The De ...

, Sub-dean of the

Chapel Royal A chapel royal is an establishment in the British and Canadian royal households serving the spiritual needs of the sovereign and the royal family. Historically, the chapel royal was a body of priests and singers that travelled with the monarc ...

, Sub-Almoner, and Domestic Chaplain to Her Majesty the

Queen of the United Kingdom The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the form of government used by the United Kingdom by which a hereditary monarch reigns as the head of state, with their powers regulated by the British cons ...

1965–79. Mansel was born in Leamington on 18 June 1907 and educated at

Brighton College Brighton College is a fee-charging, co-educational, boarding and day public school for boys and girls aged 3 to 18 in Brighton and Hove, England. The school has three sites: Brighton College (the senior school, ages 11 to 18), Brighton Co ...

and

Exeter College, Oxford Exeter College (in full: The Rector and Scholars of Exeter College in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, and the fourth-oldest college of the university. The college was founde ...

, where he read French. He spent more than thirty years as a

schoolmaster A schoolmaster, or simply master, is a male school teacher. The usage first occurred in England in the Late Middle Ages and early modern period. At that time, most schools were one-room or two-room schools and had only one or two such teacher ...

, first at

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2-18 private, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...

1934–39 and then at

Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...

1939–65. In 1941, influenced by the then headmaster, Spencer Leeson, Mansel took holy orders and was successively assistant chaplain, chaplain and, from 1955–62,

housemaster {{Unreferenced, date=October 2024 In education, a housemaster is a schoolmaster in charge of a boarding house, normally at a boarding school and especially at a public school. The housemaster is responsible for the supervision and care of board ...

at Winchester. In 1965 he abandoned teaching on being offered the posts of Sub-Dean of HM Chapels Royal, Deputy Clerk of the Closet and Sub-Almoner and Domestic Chaplain to the Queen on the recommendation of Bishop Roger Wilson of

Chichester Chichester ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in the Chichester District, Chichester district of West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher ...

Clerk of the Closet The College of Chaplains of the Ecclesiastical Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom is under the Clerk of the Closet, an office dating from 1437. It is normally held by a diocesan bishop, who may, however, remain in office after leav ...

. Mansel was, in fact, the first full-time Chaplain to the Queen to be appointed. He was a Canon and

Prebendary A prebendary is a member of the Catholic Church, Catholic or Anglicanism , Anglican clergy, a form of canon (priest) , canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in part ...

Chichester Cathedral Chichester Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Chichester. It is located in Chichester, in West Sussex, England. It was founded as a cathedral in 1075, when the seat of th ...

from 1971–81 and became Canon

Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

in 1981. A Londoner by adoption and affection, Mansel worked as an assistant priest at

St Margaret's, Westminster The Church of St Margaret, Westminster Abbey is in the grounds of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square, London, England. It is dedicated to Margaret the Virgin, Margaret of Antioch, and forms part of a single World Heritage Site with the Pal ...

, after retirement from his chaplaincy, and in 1988 was appointed an honorary priest vicar at

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...

, an office he held until his death on 22 September 1995.

References

MANSEL, Rev. Canon James Seymour Denis
''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2015 (online edition, Oxford University Press, 2014)
Canon J. S. D. Mansel
(obituary), ''The Times'', London, 26 September 1995, page 19 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mansel, James 1907 births 1995 deaths People educated at Brighton College Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford Alumni of Westcott House, Cambridge Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order 20th-century English Anglican priests Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London