page_title: Randall Davidson
section_title: Winchester
hierarchical_section_title: Randall Davidson / Bishop / Winchester
caption_attribution_description: Caricature of Randall Thomas Davidson (1848-1930), Bishop of Winchester at the time. Caption read "Prelate of the garter".
context_page_description: Randall Thomas Davidson, 1st Baron Davidson of Lambeth, GCVO, PC was an Anglican priest who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1903 to 1928. He was the longest-serving holder of the office since the Reformation, and also the first to retire from it.
  Born in Edinburgh to a Scottish Presbyterian family, Davidson was educated at Harrow School, where he became an Anglican, and at Trinity College, Oxford, where he was largely untouched by the arguments and debates between adherents of the high-church and low-church factions of the Church of England. He was ordained in 1874, and, after a brief spell as a curate, he became chaplain and secretary to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Archibald Campbell Tait, in which post he became a confidant of Queen Victoria. He rose through the Church hierarchy, becoming Dean of Windsor, Bishop of Rochester and Bishop of Winchester. In 1903 he succeeded Frederick Temple as Archbishop of Canterbury, and remained in office until his retirement in November 1928.
context_section_description: In 1895 Davidson accepted the offer of translation to the largely rural diocese of Winchester, where the workload was less onerous. He renewed his regular contact with the Queen, who spent much time in the diocese, at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. Archbishop Benson died the following year and was succeeded by the Bishop of London, Frederick Temple. The Queen vetoed a proposed offer of the vacant bishopric of London to Davidson, on the grounds that his health would not stand it. Temple, unlike his two predecessors, did not turn to Davidson for advice; he had a reputation for isolating himself from all the bishops and their views. Davidson greatly regretted his sudden exclusion from national Church affairs.
  Within his diocese Davidson was drawn into controversy over a high-church breach of canon law by Robert Dolling, a fervent Anglo-Catholic priest, who liked to be called "Father Dolling". Davidson discovered that Dolling had installed a third altar at his newly built church, to be reserved for masses for the dead. The Church of England disowned the Roman Catholic belief in Purgatory and the efficacy of praying for souls in it. Davidson saw Dolling and tried to reach a compromise that would bring the latter's practices within Anglican rules. Dolling refused to compromise and resigned, leaving the diocese. His supporters were critical of Davidson; Mews cites a high-church journalist who concluded that the episode left its mark on Davidson "in forming his determination not to be the archbishop who drove the high-church party out of the Church of England". Though traditionally Protestant in his rejection of some aspects of Roman Catholic doctrine such as Benediction, he thought his evangelical colleagues were too easily upset by "incense, copes and other adornments", which had no doctrinal significance.
  Davidson was at the bedside of the dying Queen Victoria, and played a major role in the arrangements for her funeral in early 1901. When the see of London again fell vacant in February 1901, on the death of Mandell Creighton, it was offered to Davidson, who refused it on firm medical advice. He spoke frequently in the House of Lords, particularly on such topics as education, child protection, alcohol licensing, and working hours in shops. He involved himself when he could in national Church policy. His grasp of the issues impressed the Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour, who recorded that "the Bishop has the art of stating with great clearness and sympathy the gist of opinions from which he differs" and said that he understood the position of Halifax and the Anglo-Catholic lobby better after discussing it with Davidson.
  Balfour continued to seek Davidson's advice. The government sought to reform primary education, and Davidson's input to the framing of the Education Bill of 1902 was greatly valued by Balfour, as was his advice on how to defend the bill against vociferous nonconformist opposition, led by the Baptist minister John Clifford. Behind the scenes, Davidson was a key contributor to the coronation of Edward VII in August 1902; the Dean of Westminster was ill, and Davidson was called on to arrange the order of service and to act as the link between Buckingham Palace and Lambeth Palace. Four months after crowning the King, Archbishop Temple died and Balfour nominated Davidson as his successor.
caption: As Bishop of Winchester, by Spy in Vanity Fair, 1901
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