James Hutchison Cockburn DD ThD FSAScot (29 October 1882 – 20 June 1973) was a Scottish

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researc ...

and senior

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...

clergyman Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

. He served as

Moderator of the General Assembly The moderator of the General Assembly is the chairperson of a General Assembly, the highest court of a Presbyterian or Reformed church. Kirk sessions and presbyteries may also style the chairperson as moderator. The Oxford Dictionary states t ...

in 1941/2, the highest position in the Church of Scotland.

Biography

Church career

Born in Paisley on 29 October 1882, he was the eldest child of George Hanna Cockburn (a

schoolmaster The word schoolmaster, or simply master, refers to a male school teacher. This usage survives in British independent schools, both secondary and preparatory, and a few Indian boarding schools (such as The Doon School) that were modelled afte ...

) and Isabella Brodie Marshall.Bowser, "James Hutchison Cockburn", p. 100. After receiving his school education in Paisley, he studied at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

, graduating in

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and

Divinity Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.divine< ...

. In 1908 he was ordained in Mearns parish; in 1914 he was translated to

Battlefield A battlefield, battleground, or field of battle is the location of a present or historic battle involving ground warfare. It is commonly understood to be limited to the point of contact between opposing forces, though battles may involve troops ...

parish,

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. He married Amy Macloy, daughter of another minister, in 1912, who would in time bear him a son and daughter. During

World War I 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 ...

he was a British

army chaplain A military chaplain ministers to military personnel and, in most cases, their families and civilians working for the military. In some cases they will also work with local civilians within a military area of operations. Although the term '' ch ...

, serving in France,

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and East Africa. After the war, he returned to Scotland, where on 8 May 1918, he became minister at

Dunblane Cathedral Dunblane Cathedral is the larger of the two Church of Scotland parish churches serving Dunblane, near the city of Stirling, in central Scotland. The lower half of the tower is pre- Romanesque from the 11th century, and was originally free-standi ...

. In the following years he served as the Convener of the Business Committee of the

General Assembly of the Church of Scotland The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the sovereign and highest court of the Church of Scotland, and is thus the Church's governing body.''An Introduction to Practice and Procedure in the Church of Scotland'' by A. Gordon McGillivray, ...

, and was Convener of the Committees on Church and Nation and Inter-Church Relations, and was Clerk to the Committee from 1927 until 1929, promoting union between the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Cockburn served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (1941–1942), as well as briefly being Vice-Chairman of the British Council of Churches. In 1944, he became a Chaplain 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 I ...

, and retained such a position after the accession of his daughter

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

in 1952. When he died in 1973, he was Senior Extra-Chaplain to the Queen. Cockburn departed Dunblane in 1945 for

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

, taking the position of Director of the Department of Reconstruction and Inter-Church Aid of the

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...

. From 1952 until 1954 he was a member of the Royal Commission on Scottish Affairs.

Academic life

From 1931 until 1934 Cockburn was a Lecturer on

Pastoral Theology Pastoral theology is the branch of practical theology concerned with the application of the study of religion in the context of regular church ministry. This approach to theology seeks to give practical expression to theology. Normally viewed as a ...

St Mary's College, St Andrews (In the Beginning was the Word) , established = , type = College , endowment = , staff = , faculty = , rector = , chancellor = , principal = Oliver D. Crisp , free_label = Teaching staff , free = 20 , ...

. He was the William Belden Noble Lecturer at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1942, and served as Warrack Lecturer on Preaching in Edinburgh, 1944-1945. In 1951 he was Otts Lecturer at Davidson College,

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. In 1930, he was one of the founders of the Society of Friends of Dunblane Cathedral, whose journal he edited between 1930 and 1965.Bowser, "James Hutchison Cockburn", p. 101. He created a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

for the church in the Dean's House, and used his connections to acquire material to fill it. Cockburn contributed many articles for this journal. Cockburn also published several books on religious history: * * * By his death on 20 June 1973, Cockburn had received honorary doctorates (Doctor of Divinity and Doctor of Theology) from the University of Glasgow, University of Prague,

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

, Occidental College, Los Angeles, and

Wooster College The College of Wooster is a private liberal arts college in Wooster, Ohio. Founded in 1866 by the Presbyterian Church as the University of Wooster, it has been officially non-sectarian since 1969 when ownership ties with the Presbyterian Churc ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cockburn, James Hutchison 1882 births 1973 deaths Harvard University staff 20th-century Ministers of the Church of Scotland Moderators of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland People from Paisley, Renfrewshire 20th-century Scottish historians Scottish military chaplains World War I chaplains

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguati ...