The Rev. Sir Francis Arthur Stanley ffolkes, 5th Baronet (8 December 1863 — 18 October or 20 October 1938) was an English baronet and

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 ...

priest who served successive monarchs of the United Kingdom as an Honorary Chaplain and Chaplain-in-Ordinary.

Biography

After his schooling at

Oakham Oakham is the county town of Rutland in the East Midlands of England, east of Leicester, south-east of Nottingham and west of Peterborough. It had a population of 10,922 in the 2011 census, estimated at 11,191 in 2019. Oakham is to the west o ...

, ffolkes studied at

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_chan ...

( Hatfield Hall) where he completed a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in 1885. In 1893 he married Miss Isabel Boschetti and had one son, Edward John Patrick Boschetti ffolkes, who would later succeed to the baronetcy, and one daughter. He was Rector of Scoulton from 1894 to 1897, of

Wolferton Wolferton is a village in north Norfolk, England, 2 miles west of Sandringham, 7½ miles north of King's Lynn and 37¼ miles northwest of Norwich. Background The village's name means 'Wulfhere's farm/settlement'. The village forms part of th ...

(close to

Sandringham House Sandringham House is a country house in the parish of Sandringham, Norfolk, England. It is one of the royal residences of Charles III, whose grandfather, George VI, and great-grandfather, George V, both died there. The house stands in a estate ...

) till 1912, and, after the death of his father, succeeded him as Rector of

Hillington, Norfolk Hillington is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It covers an area of and had a population of 287 in 123 households as of the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 census, increasing to 400 at the 2011 Census. For the purpos ...

, the home of the

ffolkes baronets The ffolkes Baronetcy, of Hillington in the County of Norfolk, is a title in the Baronetage of Great Britain. It was created on 26 May 1774 for Martin ffolkes, FRS later High Sheriff of Norfolk and Member of Parliament for King's Lynn. The se ...

. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

ffolkes served as a padre on attachment to the

Norfolk Yeomanry The Norfolk Yeomanry was a volunteer cavalry (Yeomanry) regiment of Britain's Territorial Army accepted onto the establishment of the British Army in 1794. After seeing action in the Second Boer War, it served dismounted at Gallipoli, in Pale ...

. He served during the Battle of Gallipoli. He was also

mentioned in despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

in 1917 for his actions as part of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in Kantara – part of British efforts to protect the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...

from Ottoman forces.

Royal service

His ecclesiastical career was also closely connected with the

Royal Family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term ...

, serving successively as Honorary Chaplain 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 Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

between 1900 and 1901; Honorary Chaplain to

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...

between 1901 and 1903, and Chaplain-in-Ordinary to Edward VII between 1903 and 1910; Chaplain-in-Ordinary to

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Que ...

between 1910 and 1936; Chaplain-in-Ordinary to

King Edward VIII Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire and Emperor of India from 20 January 1 ...

in 1936; and finally Chaplain-in-Ordinary to

King 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 his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of Ind ...

in 1937. He was present at both the

Coronation of King Edward VII The coronation of Edward VII and his wife, Alexandra, as King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and as Emperor and Empress of India took place at Westminster Abbey, London, on 9 August 1902. Originally scheduled for 26 ...

and the Coronation of King George V.

Death

He died on the 18th of October 1938 at Hillington Rectory. A brief obituary in the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' described him as 'Chaplain to Queen Victoria and Three Kings of England'. In 1939 a memorial window dedicated to ffolkes was installed in the Lady Chapel of St Andrew's Church,

East Hagbourne East Hagbourne is a village and civil parish about south of Didcot and south of Oxford. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,882. Mano ...

, as the gift of his sister, Margaret, the former Viscountess Dillon, who resided in the village, to which ffolkes was in his later years a frequent visitor. The centre of the window features

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

and

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

. Unusually, the window also features on one side, a Bishop of the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via ...

in addition to a Western Bishop, and on the other side a Jewish

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

and a Muslim cleric, all against the backdrop of the 'New Jerusalem'. The scene was apparently inspired by a speech given by ffolkes' nephew

Tracy Philipps James Erasmus Tracy Philipps (20 November 1888 – 21 July 1959) was a British public servant. Philipps was, in various guises, a soldier, colonial administrator, traveller, journalist, propagandist, conservationist, and secret agent. He served ...

the previous Autumn at a meeting of the Near and Middle East Association, in which he expressed hope that one day in Jerusalem there would be a 'triple equality', with Jews, Christians, and Muslims living together in peace.

Honours

Member of the Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order (french: Ordre royal de Victoria) is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the British monarch, Canadian monarch, Australian monarch, or ...

(MVO) – 1908

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:ffolkes, Sir Francis, 5th Baronet 1863 births 1938 deaths 19th-century English Anglican priests 20th-century English Anglican priests Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain Alumni of Hatfield College, Durham People educated at Oakham School Members of the Royal Victorian Order Gallipoli campaign People from Hillington, Norfolk