Conrad le Despenser Roden Noel (12 July 1869 – 22 July 1942) was an English priest of the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
. Known as the 'Red Vicar' of
Thaxted, he was a prominent
Christian socialist
Christian socialism is a religious and political philosophy that blends Christianity and socialism, endorsing left-wing politics and socialist economics on the basis of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. Many Christian socialists believe cap ...
.
Early life
Noel was born on 12 July 1869 in Royal Cottage,
Kew Green
Kew Green is a large open space in Kew in west London. Owned by the Crown Estate, it is leased to the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is roughly triangular in shape, and its open grassland, framed with broadleaf trees, extends to abo ...
, London, into an aristocratic family. He was the eldest son of the poet and essayist
Roden Noel, who served as
Groom of the Privy Chamber
Groom of the Chamber was a position in the Household of the monarch in early modern England. Other ''Ancien Régime'' royal establishments in Europe had comparable officers, often with similar titles. In France, the Duchy of Burgundy, and in Eng ...
, and his wife Alice Maria Caroline Noel (née de Broë). His paternal grandfather was
Charles Noel, 1st Earl of Gainsborough
Charles Noel Noel, 1st Earl of Gainsborough (2 October 1781 – 10 June 1866), known as Charles Edwardes until 1798, as Charles Noel between 1798 and 1823 and as the Lord Barham between 1823 and 1841, was a British peer and Whig politician.
Ear ...
, and his paternal grandmother Lady Gainsborough was a
lady-in-waiting to
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
. Noel's parents were both
Anglican, though in his youth, Noel repudiated the
Calvinism
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...
of his mother and attended
higher-church services with his father.
He was educated at
Wellington College and at
Cheltenham College
("Work Conquers All")
, established =
, closed =
, type = Public school Independent School Day and Boarding School
, religion = Church of England
, president =
, head_label = Head
, head = Nicola Hugget ...
, then also an all-boys
public school.
He then entered
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, but was
rusticated (suspended) for a year and chose not to return to complete his degree.
Career
Ecclesiastical career
Noel underwent training for ordination at
Chichester Theological College
Chichester Theological College (1838–1994) was an Anglican theological college for the Diocese of Chichester in Sussex, England. Its churchmanship was high church and Anglo-Catholic.
History
Chichester Theological College college was foun ...
, an
Anglo-Catholic
Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholic heritage and identity of the various Anglican churches.
The term was coined in the early 19th century, although movements emphasising the Catholic nature of Anglica ...
theological school. At first he was refused ordination into the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
because of his theological views: he had been offered a
curacy
A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...
at All Saints Church in
Plymouth, but on the day on which he was scheduled to be ordained, the
Bishop of Exeter refused to ordain him.
In 1894, he was ordained
deacon
A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...
in the
Diocese of Chester
The Diocese of Chester is a Church of England diocese in the Province of York covering the pre-1974 county of Cheshire and therefore including the Wirral and parts of Stockport, Trafford and Tameside.
History
Ancient diocese
Before the si ...
and became a curate in
Flowery Field,
Cheshire, but left following parishioners' objections to his
socialism
Socialism is a left-wing Economic ideology, economic philosophy and Political movement, movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to Private prop ...
. He also spent time as a curate at St Philip's in Newcastle, under
W. E. Moll. Also in 1894, he married Miriam Greenwood. In late 1904 he became assistant priest to
Percy Dearmer at
Primrose Hill
Primrose Hill is a Grade II listed public park located north of Regent's Park in London, England, first opened to the public in 1842.Mills, A., ''Dictionary of London Place Names'', (2001) It was named after the natural hill in the centre of ...
.
In 1910, he became the
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 pre ...
of
Thaxted,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
presented by the patron of the living
Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick
Frances Evelyn "Daisy" Greville, Countess of Warwick (''née'' Maynard; 10 December 1861 – 26 July 1938) was a British socialite and philanthropist. Although embedded in late- Victorian British high society, she was also a campaigning sociali ...
, who was herself a socialist.
Within
Thaxted Parish Church
The Church of Saint John the Baptist with Our Lady and Saint Laurence is the parish church of the town of Thaxted in Essex, England. The present church was built over an extended period between c. 1380 and 1510 in the English Perpendicular style ...
, Noel hung the
red flag and the flag of
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...
alongside the
flag of Saint George. This led to the "Battle of the Flags" with students from Cambridge leading attacks on the church to remove the flags. Eventually, in 1922 a
consistory court
A consistory court is a type of ecclesiastical court, especially within the Church of England where they were originally established pursuant to a charter of King William the Conqueror, and still exist today, although since about the middle of the ...
ruled against displaying the flags and Noel obeyed the ruling.
He founded the socialist organization Catholic Crusade in 1918, which had some impact in the origins of
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...
in Britain.
On Noel's perspective on the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
, which was similar to that of
William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
and
John Ruskin
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...
, Reginald Groves wrote:
Politics
Having become a socialist shortly after finishing his university studies, he joined the
Social Democratic Federation. He joined the
Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...
, but in 1911 became a member of the newly formed
British Socialist Party.
Noel also supported the British Provisional Committee for the Defence of
Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
, and signed a letter defending Trotsky's right to asylum and calling for an international inquiry into the
Moscow Trials.
Personal life
He was a friend of the composer
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite ''The Planets'', he composed many other works across a range ...
who also lived for some years in the town of Thaxted.
He died of
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
on 22 July 1942 aged 73. A sculpture by
Gertrude Hermes is in Thaxted church.
Publications
*''Ought Christians to be Socialists?'', 1909. Transcript of a debate with the
Christadelphian
The Christadelphians () or Christadelphianism are a restorationist and millenarian Christian group who hold a view of biblical unitarianism. There are approximately 50,000 Christadelphians in around 120 countries. The movement developed in the ...
Frank Jannaway.
See also
*
John Groser
St John Beverley Groser (23 June 1890 – 19 March 1966) was an English Anglican priest and prominent Christian socialist. Hannen Swaffer described him as "the best-known priest in the East End London.html"_;"title="f_London">f_London/nowiki ...
*
Stewart Headlam
Stewart Duckworth Headlam (1847–1924) was an English Anglican priest who was involved in frequent controversy in the final decades of the nineteenth century. Headlam was a pioneer and publicist of Christian socialism, on which he wrote a pamphl ...
*
Liberal Anglo-Catholicism
The terms liberal Anglo-Catholicism, liberal Anglo-Catholic or simply Liberal Catholic, refer to people, beliefs and practices within Anglicanism that affirm liberal Christian perspectives while maintaining the traditions culturally associated wit ...
References
Footnotes
Works cited
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Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Noel, Conrad
1869 births
1942 deaths
20th-century English Anglican priests
Alumni of Chichester Theological College
Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Anglican pacifists
Anglo-Catholic socialists
British Socialist Party members
English Christian pacifists
English Christian socialists
Independent Labour Party
Conrad
People educated at Cheltenham College
People educated at Winchester College
People from Richmond, London
People from Thaxted