page_title: Clarence Bicknell
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Clarence Bicknell / Early life
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Ex Chiesa anglicana di Bordighera
context_page_description: Clarence Bicknell was a British vicar, amateur archaeologist, botanist, artist, Esperantist, author and philanthropist. He founded the Bicknell Museum in Bordighera, Italy. Also named after him is a street in Bordighera, and two plant species.
context_section_description: Clarence Bicknell was the youngest son of successful British businessman and patron of the arts, Elhanan Bicknell (1788-1861), and his third wife, Lucinda Sarah (1801-1850). Clarence and ten of his siblings survived childhood and grew up in their parents' mansion, surrounded by extensive gardens, at Herne Hill, London. He was just seven years old when his mother died in 1850. His father remarried a year later and soon after young Clarence was sent to Rev J. Edward's boarding school at Dorney, Buckinghamshire.
  Elhanan Bicknell was a committed Unitarian and a major donor to the British and Foreign Unitarian Association. His son Clarence broke with his father's faith and in 1861, the year of his father's death, was baptised into the Church of England. That same year he began his studies at Trinity College, Cambridge, receiving a B.A. in mathematics in 1865. He decided on a career in Anglican ministry, entered holy orders and was ordained a deacon in 1866. Two years later, he became a priest.
  Clarence Bicknell's first post was as a curate at St Paul's, Walworth, where he remained till November 1873. He then accepted a position at St Peter's Church, Stoke on Tern, a village in Shropshire. In September 1878, he accepted the post of chaplain to a new Anglican church under construction for the British community in Bordighera, Italy, a popular resort for wealthy tourists.
  He suffered some kind of crisis of faith, left his post, cut his ties with organised religion entirely, and returned to Britain in June 1879.
caption: Anglican Church, Bordighera. Religious services ceased there in 2000. Now used as a municipal cultural centre.
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