Cuthbert Thicknesse

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File:Cuthbert Thicknesse in the 1930s.jpg

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Cuthbert Carroll Thicknesse[http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?LinkID=mp75796 NPG details] (19 November 1887 – 2 June 1971) was Dean of St Albans[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A/records.aspx?cat=109-aa_1-1_1-2&cid=-1&Gsm=2008-06-18#-1 National Archives details] from 1936New Dean Of St. Albans Appointment Of Canon Thicknesse The Times Thursday, Mar 05, 1936; pg. 14; Issue 47315; col G until his retirement in 1955.

Born into an ecclesiastical family of Lancashire landed gentry,Burke's Landed Gentry, 1871, vol. II, pg 1370 the son of Ven. Francis Norman Thicknesse,Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes, 1969, Kelly's Directories, pg 1925 and educated at Marlborough and Keble College, Oxford, he was ordained in 1913.[http://www.burkes-peerage.net/familyhomepage.aspx?FID=0&FN=Thicknesse2-596 Burke’s Peerage] He was firstly a Curate of St John-at-Hackney.{{Cite web |url=http://www.stjohn-at-hackneychurch.org.uk/Pages/index.html |title=Parish web site |access-date=2009-03-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090330225711/http://www.stjohn-at-hackneychurch.org.uk/Pages/index.html |archive-date=2009-03-30 |url-status=dead }} He became a Temporary Chaplain to the Forces in May, 1915. He was sent to Flanders in January, 1917, attached to the Royal Artillery but, 4 months later, was wounded in the knee. He was invalided out in 1917Church Times obituary,4.6.1971 By then, he had married Rhoda Oonah Marjorie Moran Pratt, and the Archbishop of York was able to have him appointed Rector of Bedworth, a post reserved for Chaplains to the Forces.Guardian,20.9.1917 In 1922, he moved to Wigan, and was made an Honorary Chaplain to the King. In 1934, he was recommended for the vacant see at GuildfordLambeth Palace Library,Lang Papers but was unsuccessful. He became Dean of St Albans two years later. Noted for a ‘volcanic’ temperament,The Times obituary,3.6.1971 he was a fierce opponent of nuclear weapons,[http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/cats/liddell/li14.htm Opposition to nuclear weapons] and he refused to hold a service of celebration in St Albans Cathedral at the cessation of the war with Japan in August 1945.Obituary Dean Thicknesse The Times Thursday, Jun 03, 1971; pg. 17; Issue 58189; col G He was described in his obituary as “a high church man and convinced Anglican”.Times Obituary (ibid)