Paul Fulcrand Delacour De Labillière (22 January 187928 April 1946) was the second

Bishop of Knaresborough A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

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 Canterbur ...

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 jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

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 exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

) he was educated at Harrow and

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

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

Advent Advent is a Christian season of preparation for the Nativity of Christ at Christmas. It is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity. The name was adopted from Latin "coming; arrival", translating Greek ''parousia''. In ...

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

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

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 Captain Noel Chavasse. After serving in parishes in Preston, London, and Oxford, for eleven years from 1889 he was principal of the evan ...

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 no ...

. After ordination in 1903 he served as a curate in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

and

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

before his appointment as

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 ...

to the

Bishop of Durham The Bishop of Durham is the Anglican bishop responsible for 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 has been the Bishop of Durham ...

and then missionary work in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. 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 one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

Lecturer Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, 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. T ...

Wycliffe Hall, Oxford Wycliffe Hall is a Church of England Seminary, theological college and a permanent private hall of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is named after the Bible translator and reformer John Wycliffe, who was Master (college), mast ...

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 pref ...

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 he or she is responsible for the disciplinary supervision of the clergy within the four deaneries (Allerton, Armley, ...

. 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 th ...

, at

York Minster The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, commonly known as York Minster, is the cathedral of York, North Yorkshire, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Archbis ...

. He served as Bishop of Knaresborough until his installation as

Candlemas Candlemas (also spelled Candlemass), 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 commemorating the presentati ...

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 A private secretary (PS) is a civil servant in a governmental department or ministry, responsible to a secretary of state or minister; or a public servant in a royal household, responsible to a member of the royal family. The role exists in t ...

, 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) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from ...

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 *, an Imperial German Navy light cruiser b ...

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

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence 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 royal hospitality. It ...

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 George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

; 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