The Venerable James Rowland Walkey CBE, was an amateur sportsman in the first half of the twentieth century who later became an eminent

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 ...

Chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

. He was born into a military family on 10 April 1880 and educated at Plymouth College and

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

. During his varsity years he was awarded a Blue for Rugby and, after joining the British Army as a chaplain, was its 100-yard champion in 1906. In that year he married Bijou Frances Paske daughter of the Colonel Commandant of the Notts and Derbyshire Regiment with whom he had one son and six daughters. He was

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 ...

during World War I and at its conclusion joined the fledgling Royal Air Force Chaplaincy Service. After serving at Uxbridge (during which time he became its Fencing champion) he held posts in Iraq and the Middle East before becoming an Honorary Chaplain to the King and eventually its

Archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that o ...

(Chaplain-in-Chief). Later he held incumbencies at

Wateringbury Wateringbury is a village and civil parish near the town of Maidstone in Kent, England. The Wateringbury Stream flows into the River Medway just above Bow Bridge. It formerly powered three watermills in the village, one of which survives. The ...

Worting Worting is a former village and now a district of Basingstoke, Hampshire, that was formed around 1970 as part of the Basingstoke Town Centre Development Plan. The area is bounded to the south by Hatch Warren and the Worting Junction. To the ea ...

Angmering Angmering is a village and civil parish between Littlehampton and Worthing in West Sussex on the southern edge of the South Downs National Park, England; about two-thirds of the parish (mostly north of the A27 road) fall within the Park. It is ...

, Haversham and Moreton. He retired just a year before his death on 8 January 1960."Obituary Rev. J. R. Walkey", '' The Times'', Thursday, 14 January 1960; pg. 17; Issue 54668; col B

Notes and references

1880 births 1960 deaths People educated at Plymouth College Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Cambridge University R.U.F.C. players Honorary Chaplains to the King Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Royal Air Force Chaplains-in-Chief World War I chaplains World War II chaplains Royal Army Chaplains' Department officers {{RAF-bio-stub