Paul Fulcrand Delacour De Labillière (22 January 187928 April 1946) was the second Bishop of Knaresborough from 1934 to 1937; and, subsequently,

Dean of Westminster The Dean of Westminster is the head of the chapter at Westminster Abbey. Due to the abbey's status as a royal peculiar, the dean answers directly to the British monarch (not to the Bishop of London as ordinary, nor to the Archbishop of Canterb ...

Career

Born on 22 January 1879 into a legal family (his father was a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

of the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

) he was educated at

Harrow Harrow may refer to: Places * Harrow, Victoria, Australia * Harrow, Ontario, Canada * The Harrow, County Wexford, a village in Ireland * London Borough of Harrow, England * Harrow, London, a town in London * Harrow (UK Parliament constituency) * ...

and

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 126 ...

(where he was later elected an Honorary Fellow, in 1945). He was made deacon in

Advent Advent is a season observed in most Christian denominations as a time of waiting and preparation for both the celebration of Jesus's birth at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Chri ...

1902 (21 December) at the Pro-Cathedral, and

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

priest the following Advent (20 December 1903) at Edge Hill Parish Church (i.e. St Mary's) — both times by

Francis Chavasse Francis James Chavasse (27 September 1846 – 11 March 1928) was an Anglican priest and bishop and father of Noel Godfrey Chavasse, Captain Noel Chavasse. After serving in parishes in Preston, Lancashire, Preston, London, and Oxford, for eleven y ...

Bishop of Liverpool The Bishop of Liverpool is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Liverpool in the Province of York.''Crockford's Clerical Directory'', 100th edition, (2007), Church House Publishing. . The diocese stretches from Southport in the n ...

. After ordination in 1903 he served as a curate in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

and

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

before his appointment as

Chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

to the

Bishop of Durham The bishop of Durham is head of the diocese of Durham in the province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler (bishop), Paul Butler was the most recent bishop of Durham u ...

and then missionary work in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. In South Africa he met and married Ester Morkel; they had a son and a daughter. He was successively Clerical Superintendent of the ''Liverpool Scripture Readers'', Chaplain of

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street, Oxford, Broad Street and Parks Road ...

Lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...

Wycliffe Hall, Oxford Wycliffe Hall () is a permanent private hall of the University of Oxford affiliated with the Church of England, specialising in philosophy, theology, and religion. It is named after the Bible translator and reformer John Wycliffe, who was mas ...

and

Vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...

of Christ Church, High Harrogate before a 4-year stint as Suffragan Bishop of Knaresborough and

Archdeacon of Leeds The Archdeacon of Leeds, previously Archdeacon of Ripon, is a senior ecclesiastical officer within the Diocese of Leeds. As such they are responsible for the disciplinary supervision of the clergy within the four deaneries (Allerton, Armley, Hea ...

. He was consecrated a bishop on St James's Day 1934 (25 July), by William Temple,

Archbishop of York The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers the ...

, at

York Minster York Minster, formally the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, is an Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. The minster is the seat of the archbishop of York, the second-highest of ...

. He served as Bishop of Knaresborough until his installation as

Candlemas Candlemas, also known as the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ, the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or the Feast of the Holy Encounter, is a Christian holiday, Christian feast day commemorating the presentation of ...

1938 (2 February). A quiet but effective priest, his final professional appointment was as

. De Labillière had profound experiences of both World Wars. In the Great War he had earned a Mention in Despatches when he served as a chaplain from 1916 to 1919, from December 1917 in Egypt. In the Second World War, when he was Dean of Westminster, a German bomb in 1941 destroyed part of the Abbey and the Deanery.

George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until Death and state funeral of George VI, his death in 1952 ...

’s Private Secretary, Tommy Lascelles, noted in his diary for 24 November 1942, ‘The Dean of Westminster lunched with me .... I like him, and have always admired him for his unruffled fortitude the day after the Germans blew his beautiful deanery and all his possessions into dust and ashes during one of the worst Blitz-nights. De Labillière was sufficiently well-regarded to be a candidate for Archbishop of Canterbury when Cosmo Lang retired in 1942. De Labillière was recognised as a scholar and preacher but ‘lacks weight’; William Temple was appointed. De Labilliere is also remembered for a last minute change in the Abbey's Armistice Day service in 1938 after

Kristallnacht ( ) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilia ...

when he included a prayer for the Jewish people 'in their trouble.' The Deanery was destroyed in the 1941

Blitz Blitz, German for "lightning", may refer to: Military uses *Blitzkrieg, blitz campaign, or blitz, a type of military campaign *The Blitz, the German aerial campaign against Britain in the Second World War *, several ships of the Prussian, Imperia ...

and it is said the King and Queen offered him alternative accommodation at

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a royal official residence, residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and r ...

but he found a new place to live close to the Abbey. As Dean of Westminster, De Labillière was also ''ex officio'' Dean of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior British Armed Forces, military officers or senior Civil Service ...

; he died in post of a brain haemorrhage on 28 April 1946.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Labilliere, Paul Fulcrand Delacour de 1879 births People educated at Harrow School Alumni of Merton College, Oxford Bishops of Knaresborough Archdeacons of Leeds Deans of Westminster 1946 deaths