Henry Mercer (priest)
{{short description|Anglican priest and fraudster}}
{{about|the former Anglican Dean of Perth, Western Australia, and fraudster|the American archaeologist|Henry Chapman Mercer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Henry Frederick Mercer (30 March 1872 – 22 February 1949) was a British priest in the Church of England who became Dean of Perth, but whose career ended in disgrace when he was convicted and imprisoned on numerous occasions for fraud. He died in Wandsworth Gaol in 1949.
Early life
Mercer was born in 1872 in Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, the son of Thomas Atherton Mercer, an accountant, and his wife Mary (née Darricott).{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mercer-henry-frederick-13095|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: Henry Frederick Mercer|chapter=Mercer, Henry Frederick (1872–1949) |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |access-date=16 April 2021}} He was educated at Giggleswick Grammar School and Christ's College, Cambridge, but only remained there for five terms.Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1908, p 977.
Clerical career
Mercer attended the London College of Divinity, and was ordained deacon in 1895 and priest in 1896. He served curacies at St Mary's, Spital-square, London, 1895–96, St Mary's, North Mimms, 1896–97, and St Cuthbert's, Hampstead, 1897–99. He was then Metropolitan Secretary of the Church Army from 1899 to 1907, during which time he obtained a BA degree from the Western University of London, Ontario. He would later claim to have both a MA and a DLitt.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47128866 |title=WORTHLESS CHEQUES |newspaper=The West Australian |volume=64 |issue=19,397 |location=Western Australia |date=15 September 1948 |accessdate=17 April 2021 |page=6 (1st EDITION) |via=National Library of Australia}} In 1907 he was appointed as Rector of St Columb's Church, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Victoria. He had a focus on men's ministry, and in 1909 established a St Columb's Brotherhood for men of the parish.{{Cite web|url=https://dro.deakin.edu.au/eserv/DU:30068919/mercer1911menonly.htm|title=Mercer, Henry Frederick, Men Only, 1911|access-date=16 April 2021}} At this point Mercer was much in favour, and Archbishop Clarke agreed to be the patron.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10690784 |title=REV. H. F. MERCER ENTERTAINED. |newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne) |issue=19,525 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=16 February 1909 |accessdate=17 April 2021 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}
Mercer's reputation for bringing men back into the church led to the Bishop of Perth, Charles Riley, inviting him to become Dean of Perth in 1912. However, by 1916 doubts about Mercer's character and credentials had emerged, and he had incurred debts of over £A2,000, which were cleared by leading laymen, including Septimus Burt.
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In 1916 he enlisted with the Australian Imperial Force as a Chaplain, 4th Class, and left Fremantle on HMAT {{SS|Argyllshire||2}}.{{Cite web|url=https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/R2018974|title=Australian War Memorial: Henry Frederick Mercer|access-date=17 April 2021}} On arrival in England in January 1917, he became chaplain at No 2 Auxiliary Australian Hospital in Southall, London. This was his last clerical role: he resigned as Dean in March. He was deposed from holy orders in 1927.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article248578146 |title=FORMER DEAN OF PERTH, 74, JAILED |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |volume=XI |issue=153 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=18 September 1946 |accessdate=17 April 2021 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}
Criminal convictions and disgrace
Mercer's subsequent career was chequered: he was a temporary Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1917, and a Captain in the Royal Air Force in 1918–19. After the War he was appointed to a position as a lecturer at an English university, but which he subsequently lost.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article81957525 |title=Former Dean Of Perth Gaoled |newspaper=The Daily News |volume=LVII |issue=19,939 |location=Western Australia |date=21 February 1939 |accessdate=17 April 2021 |page=1 (CITY FINAL) |via=National Library of Australia}} By 1921 he was teaching in an English school in Calcutta, styling himself 'Dr H.F. Mercer (late Captain A.I.F.)', neither of which was accurate. At the time of the 1939 register, he was describing himself as 'university examiner & lecturer'.{{Cite web|url=https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=TNA%2FR39%2F4328%2F4328B%2F016&parentid=TNA%2FR39%2F4328%2F4328B%2F016%2F13|title=1939 register, via Find My Past|access-date=17 April 2021}}
In 1927 Mercer was sentenced for fraud in Zürich.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article176006751 |title=Gaol for Fallen Dean. |newspaper=The Uralla Times |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=7 December 1933 |accessdate=17 April 2021 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}} In 1930 Mercer and Beatrice Carey, who was calling herself Mrs Mercer, were charged in Birmingham with obtaining credit at the British Legion Club in Southport with intent to defraud; Mercer was sentenced to six months' imprisonment with hard labour.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58382892 |title=SIX MONTHS' HARD |newspaper=Sunday Times (Perth) |issue=1686 |location=Western Australia |date=18 May 1930 |accessdate=17 April 2021 |page=1 |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38512204 |title=EX-DEAN OF PERTH. |newspaper=Western Mail |volume=XLV |issue=2,310 |location=Western Australia |date=22 May 1930 |accessdate=17 April 2021 |page=26 |via=National Library of Australia}} This had followed an incident shortly before in Birmingham, when Mercer was charged with having obtained credit by false pretences at the Stork Hotel, but on that occasion the case was dismissed.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article76044004 |title=DEAN MERCER AND THE LADY |newspaper=Mirror |volume=9 |issue=447 |location=Western Australia |date=3 May 1930 |accessdate=17 April 2021 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}} In 1933 he was sentenced at the Old Bailey to 18 months' imprisonment for false pretences, where he had induced hotelkeepers to give money for advertisements and photographs in guide books that had never appeared.
In 1939 he was sentenced in Rhyl to six months' imprisonment for paying his rent with a false cheque; in court he admitted to other similar offences. In 1946 he was sentenced to a year's imprisonment at East Sussex Quarter Sessions for having obtained £37 from a hotel licensee by false pretences. His last conviction was in 1948 at the Surrey Quarter Sessions, where he was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment for false pretences and 12 months for obtaining credit by fraud. On that occasion he had paid hotels and tradesmen with worthless cheques. He died in Wandsworth Gaol hospital of pneumonia in 1949, aged 76.
Personal life
Mercer married Eleanor Kate Hill in Bristol in 1896. A daughter, Kathleen, was born in 1897.Hendon district registry, September 1897 quarter, Vol 3A, p 278. His first wife died in 1908; the following year in Geelong he married Jean Miller Tannock, whose sister would become the conservative politician, Dame Elizabeth Couchman.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article83501162 |title=REV, H. F. MERCER |newspaper=The Daily News |volume=XLIX |issue=17,133 |location=Western Australia |date=2 April 1930 |accessdate=17 April 2021 |page=7 (HOME FINAL EDITION) |via=National Library of Australia}} His wife and daughter having been left in Perth in 1916, they returned to Melbourne and, in 1919, unsuccessfully applied for a free passage to England. Mercer had deserted his wife by 1925,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article248378255 |title=Former W. A. Dean Goes To Prison |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |volume=XIII |issue=152 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=15 September 1948 |accessdate=18 April 2021 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} and she died in Armadale in Melbourne in 1947. Meanwhile, by 1930 he was accompanied by a woman, Florence Beatrice Carey.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article209847641 |title=Former Dean of Perth Boobed |newspaper=The Southern Districts Advocate |volume=17 |issue=26 |location=Western Australia |date=7 April 1930 |accessdate=17 April 2021 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}} Mercer referred to her as his wife (although there is no evidence of a divorce from Jean Mercer), and she is recorded as such in the 1939 register.{{Cite web|url=https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=TNA%2FR39%2F4328%2F4328B%2F016&parentid=TNA%2FR39%2F4328%2F4328B%2F016%2F13|title=1939 register, via Find My Past|access-date=17 April 2021}} She died in 1952, and her death was registered under both surnames.Carey spelt as Cary. Paddington district registry, June 1952 quarter, Vol 5d, page 138. The daughter married twice and died in 1973.
References
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Category:People educated at Giggleswick School
Category:Alumni of St John's College, Nottingham