Revd. Canon James Seymour Denis Mansel KCVO FSA JP , formerly Deputy Clerk of the Closet, Sub-dean of the Chapel Royal, Sub-Almoner, and Domestic Chaplain to Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom 1965–79.
A canon is a member of certain bodies subject to an ecclesiastical rule.
The Deputy Clerk of the Closet is the Domestic Chaplain to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. The office was created in 1677. Since 1931, the Deputy Clerk is also the sub-dean of the Chapel Royal. The Deputy Clerk is the only full-time clerical member of the Ecclesiastical Household of the Monarch of the United Kingdom.
The Chapel Royal is an establishment in the Royal Household serving the spiritual needs of the sovereign of the British royal family. Historically it was a body of priests and singers that travelled with the monarch. The term is now also applied to the chapels within royal palaces, most notably at Hampton Court and St James's Palace, and other chapels within the Commonwealth designated as such by the monarch.
Mansel was born in Leamington on 18 June 1907 and educated at Brighton College and Exeter College, Oxford, where he read French. He spent more than thirty years as a schoolmaster, first at Dulwich College 1934–39 and then at Winchester College 1939–65. In 1941, influenced by the then headmaster, Spencer Leeson, Mansel took holy orders and was successively assistant chaplain, chaplain and, from 1955–62, housemaster at Winchester.
Brighton College is an independent, co-educational boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 3 to 18 in Brighton, England. The school has three sites: Brighton College ; Brighton College Preparatory School ; and the Pre-Prep School.
Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University.
The word schoolmaster, or simply master, refers to a male school teacher. This usage survives in British independent schools, both secondary and preparatory, but is generally obsolete elsewhere.
In 1965 he abandoned teaching on being offered the posts of Sub-Dean of HM Chapels Royal, Deputy Clerk of the Closet and Sub-Almoner and Domestic Chaplain to the Queen [1] on the recommendation of Bishop Roger Wilson of Chichester, Clerk of the Closet. Mansel was, in fact, the first full-time Chaplain to the Queen to be appointed.
Roger Plumpton Wilson was Bishop of Wakefield, and later Chichester, in the mid 20th century.
Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, in South-East England. It is the only city in West Sussex and is its county town. It has a long history as a settlement from Roman times and was important in Anglo-Saxon times. It is the seat of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester, with a 12th-century cathedral.
The College of Chaplains of the Ecclesiastical Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom is under the Clerk of the Closet, an office dating from 1437. It is normally held by a diocesan bishop, who may however remain in office after leaving his see. The current Clerk is James Newcome, Bishop of Carlisle.
He was a Canon and Prebendary of Chichester Cathedral from 1971–81 and became Canon Emeritus in 1981.
A prebendary is a senior member of clergy, normally supported by the revenues from an estate or parish.
Chichester Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Chichester. It is located in Chichester, in Sussex, United Kingdom. It was founded as a cathedral in 1075, when the seat of the bishop was moved from Selsey.
Emeritus, in its current usage, is an adjective used to designate a retired professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, or other person.
A Londoner by adoption and affection, Mansel worked as an assistant priest at St Margaret's, Westminster, after retirement from his chaplaincy, and in 1988 was appointed an honorary priest vicar at Westminster Abbey, an office he held until his death on 22 September 1995.
The Church of St Margaret, Westminster Abbey, in the grounds of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square, London, England, was, until 1972, the Anglican parish church of the House of Commons. It is dedicated to Margaret of Antioch, and forms part of a single World Heritage Site with the Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey.
A Minor Canon is a member of staff on the establishment of a cathedral or a collegiate church. In some foundations the post may be known as Priest-vicar.
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is a large, mainly Gothic abbey church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United Kingdom's most notable religious buildings and the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English and, later, British monarchs. The building itself was a Benedictine monastic church until the monastery was dissolved in 1539. Between 1540 and 1556, the abbey had the status of a cathedral. Since 1560, the building is no longer an abbey or a cathedral, having instead the status of a Church of England "Royal Peculiar"—a church responsible directly to the sovereign.
