Author Topic: Rev Gerald Dalton Debenham, St Stephen, Buckland  (Read 7110 times)

Offline Raymond M

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Re: Rev Gerald Dalton Debenham, St Stephen, Buckland
« Reply #9 on: Thursday 15 January 15 09:58 GMT (UK) »
St Stephens in Buckland area of Portsmouth was built 1900-1902 at a cost of approx. £10,000 and was a ‘chapel of ease’ to the Parish Church of St Mary’s. It was an Anglican Low Church with 650 seats. It was consecrated in January 1903 and The Reverend Debenham would have been St Stephens’ first incumbent.
It was St Mary’s, an Anglican High Church and the mother church of St Stephens which had the population of 120,000 - more than half the 188,000 population of Portsmouth at the time. It was and still is a huge church and was unsuccessfully considered as the cathedral-to-be when Portsmouth became a city in 1926.
St Stephens as a 'chapel of ease' was intended for those who lived too far from the Parish Church to attend the latter. In practice although St Stephen’s was only one mile north of St Mary’s it was in a working class area unsuited to St Mary’s congregation. The latter did have its own mission hall for the ‘lower classes’ but this was a further one mile north again from St Stephens hence the need for a 'chapel of ease' in the Buckland area of Portsmouth.
Ray

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Offline Raymond M

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Re: Rev Gerald Dalton Debenham, St Stephen, Buckland
« Reply #10 on: Thursday 15 January 15 13:52 GMT (UK) »
Just to correct my last sentence which was:
The latter did have its own mission hall for the ‘lower classes’ but this was a further one mile north again from St Stephens hence the need for a 'chapel of ease' in the Buckland area of Portsmouth.
This should have read:
The latter did have its own mission church for the ‘lower classes’ but this was a further one mile south from St Mary's i.e. two mile walk from St Stephen's area, hence the need for a 'chapel of ease' in the Buckland area of Portsmouth.
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Offline hookleg

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Re: Rev Gerald Dalton Debenham, St Stephen, Buckland
« Reply #11 on: Thursday 15 January 15 16:32 GMT (UK) »
Thanks Wendy for the link to the photos. Just great.
Burt, Cockrill, Craske, Debenham, Double, Grimwade, Grimwood, Hilder, Mayhew, Ray. All from  West Suffolk around the Bury St. Edmunds area.
Simpson, Pittendreigh, Arthur.   Aberdeenshire

Offline hookleg

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Re: Rev Gerald Dalton Debenham, St Stephen, Buckland
« Reply #12 on: Thursday 15 January 15 19:07 GMT (UK) »
Raymond, I really must thank you for such a comprehensive account. After his curacy at Northwood IOW Gerald had been curate in a very small parish in the Midlands. He spent much of his time evangelising around the country and encouraging people to become missionaries. Sadly his daughter died aged 3 while he was at Flintham. He resigned but soon took up the appointment in Portsmouth. Again, sadly he contracted influenza and then whilst recovering, rheumatic fever caused his death.
Burt, Cockrill, Craske, Debenham, Double, Grimwade, Grimwood, Hilder, Mayhew, Ray. All from  West Suffolk around the Bury St. Edmunds area.
Simpson, Pittendreigh, Arthur.   Aberdeenshire


Offline Raymond M

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Re: Rev Gerald Dalton Debenham, St Stephen, Buckland
« Reply #13 on: Thursday 15 January 15 20:20 GMT (UK) »
Thank you for your kind reply.
When I am next in Portsmouth Library I'll dig out the details of the WW2 bombing of St Stephens and also its eventual demolition. St Stephens Road still exists and as it's a narrow road a photographic angle of the church was always going to be difficult. Those that Wendy pointed you to are about the best you would get.
You may have seen in the 1911 Portsmouth census there is a Dorothy Hilda Debenham age 14 at the Girls School situated at 10 Merton Road, Southsea and who was born in Northwood IoW. Perhaps another daughter?
Ray
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Offline Raymond M

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Re: Rev Gerald Dalton Debenham, St Stephen, Buckland
« Reply #14 on: Friday 16 January 15 14:56 GMT (UK) »
I went into the Portsmouth Library today and although they hold very little on St Stephen's here's what I found.
It was bombed on the evening of 10 January 1941 in the first major raid by the Luftwaffe on Portsmouth. 300 raiders took part that night and some 25,000 incendiaries plus hundreds of high explosive bombs were dropped. In all 6 churches were destroyed. At that time St Stephens had a local population of around 13,000.
Apart from some interior paper prints of St Stephen's interior there was just one print in a local book of the architect's impression of a frontal view, very much like the photo from Wendy.
(I must have had a senior moment when I said previously the view of the church advised by Wendy was from St Stephen's Rd, it was the frontal view from Kingston Rd which is a highway. St Stephen's Road runs to the rear of the church.)
The congregation moved to its Mission Hall about 1/4 mile away after the bombing and there it remained until 1961 when the last baptism and wedding took place. In spite of the loyal congregation's pleadings for the church to be rebuilt they were defeated and the church was demolished and the site, as far as I can measure it, became a new Fine Fare supermarket. Bit of a sad ending really but not unlike that of the other bombed churches.

His house at 34, Chichester Road North End Portsmouth is now a doctor's surgery so that turned out better.

Also about the 'daughter?' Dorothy Hilda Debenham. The girls' school at 10 Merton Road, Southsea is still there and was the right hand half of the nursing home in this photo link:

http://www.approvedcarehomes.co.uk/carehome/586/oakland-grange-learning-disabilitymental-health-

The library also holds the Clergy Directories so I looked at 1901 and found:
Debenham, Gerald Dalton , MA Cambridge
(ordained) priest 1889, vicar at Flintham, Newark (Diocese) in 1901

Ray
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Offline hookleg

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Re: Rev Gerald Dalton Debenham, St Stephen, Buckland
« Reply #15 on: Friday 16 January 15 17:55 GMT (UK) »
I can't begin to say how grateful I am to you Ray.
What you have done on my behalf is way over what I could ever have hoped for. Please may I have your permission to add your research to Gerald on my family tree. I will of course assign the research to you. Gerald is one of the few people from that era that I have no photo of, just newspaper cuttings.
I have named my tree in honour of Professor Frank Debenham of Cambridge University, who did the lion's share of the research into the family. Frank was co-founder of the Scott Polar Research Institute and was a geologist on Scott's ill fated Terra Nova expedition to the Antarctic (1910-13)
Burt, Cockrill, Craske, Debenham, Double, Grimwade, Grimwood, Hilder, Mayhew, Ray. All from  West Suffolk around the Bury St. Edmunds area.
Simpson, Pittendreigh, Arthur.   Aberdeenshire

Offline oscardaphers

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Re: Rev Gerald Dalton Debenham, St Stephen, Buckland
« Reply #16 on: Friday 16 January 15 20:07 GMT (UK) »
Hello again hookleg and Raymond M
I have been looking at the 1901 census and I have found St Stephens church between house numbers 150 and 156 Kingston Road.
RG13/982
I have found this particular thread interesting as I drive along St Stephens Road everytime I visit my Father-in-law. :)

Kind regards
Wendy
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Offline Raymond M

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Re: Rev Gerald Dalton Debenham, St Stephen, Buckland
« Reply #17 on: Friday 16 January 15 20:34 GMT (UK) »
Hello Hookleg, thank you again for your reply.
Please feel free to use my replies in your family tree.
It's a shame there is no photo of Gerald; maybe one of his wedding might turn up one day to complete your research.
best wishes
Ray
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