Arthur Perowne

Arthur William Thomson Perowne (13 June 1867 – 9 April 1948) was an Anglican bishop in Britain. He was the first Bishop of Bradford and, from 1931, was the Bishop of Worcester.^[1]

Perowne was born into a distinguished ecclesiastical family: he was the fourth son of John Perowne, sometime Bishop of Worcester and Anna Maria Raikea Woolrych,^[1] his uncles Thomas and Edward were Archdeacon of Norwich and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge respectively and his first-cousin Thomas also Archdeacon of Norwich. He was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College and King's College, Cambridge (he was admitted 4 October 1886, matriculated that Michaelmas, and gained the degrees of Bachelor of Arts {BA, 1889}, Cambridge Master of Arts {MA(Cantab), 1893}, and Doctor of Divinity {DD, 1920}).^[2][3][4]

Having been assistant master at Magdalen College Choir School, Oxford since 1890, Perowne was ordained a deacon on Trinity Sunday (28 May) 1893^[5] and a priest on Trinity Sunday (20 May) 1894 (both times by his father, the Bishop of Worcester, in Worcester Cathedral),^[6] beginning his ministry with his title post as a curate at Hartlebury, Worcestershire^[7] (being also a chaplain to his father, the Bishop).^[1] His first incumbency was as Vicar of St Philip & St James, Hallow, Worcestershire (1901–1904),^[2] after which he became Vicar of St George's Edgbaston, Warwickshire from 1904,^[8] Rural Dean of Edgbaston^[9] from 1905 and an honorary canon of Birmingham Cathedral from 1912.

In 1913, he left all three posts in Warks for Devon, where he became Vicar of St Andrew's, Plymouth; he became additionally Rural Dean for the Three Towns (i.e. the wider Borough of Plymouth), 1914–1918, a Prebendary of Exeter Cathedral from 1917, Archdeacon of Plymouth from 1918, and a Chaplain to the King from 1918, remaining as Vicar of Plymouth throughout, until he relinquished them all in 1920.^[2]

His appointment to become Bishop of Bradford, the first bishop diocesan of the new Diocese of Bradford, was announced on 12 December 1919,^[10] and he was ordained and consecrated a bishop by Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of York, at York Minster on Candlemas (2 February) 1910.^[11] He was translated to become Bishop of Worcester (in which See his father had served until 1901) in 1931^[12] and retired in 1941.^[2]

In 1895, he married Helena Frances Oldnall-Russell (1869–1922). They had three sons:^[2] Francis Edward Perowne (1898–1988), Stewart Perowne, a diplomat, archaeologist and historian, and Leslie Arthur Perowne (1906–1997), sometime Head of Music at the BBC, who was responsible for bringing Albert Ketèlbey out of retirement to conduct a huge BBC Ketèlbey Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, prior to World War II.

A keen fisherman,^[1] he lived retirement in Gloucester (where he died)^[13] with his second wife, Mabel (1886–1968), the second daughter of Thomas Henry Bailey of Wyldcroft in Wokingham, whom he had married in 1926.^[2]

• Hesilrige, Arthur G. M. (1921). Debrett's Peerage and Titles of courtesy. London: London: Dean & son, limited. p. 134.
• Portraits of Perowne, Arthur William Thomson at the National Portrait Gallery, London