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Harold Francis Davidson (14 July 1875 – 30 July 1937), born at Sholing in Hampshire, was a Church of England priest who held the office of Rector of Stiffkey from 1906 to 1932. Self-styled as the "Prostitutes' Padre", he was defrocked after conviction by a church court on charges of immorality. To raise funds for his campaign for reinstatement he became a circus performer. He died after he was attacked by a lion in a cage.

Family background and childhood

Harold Davidson was born on 14 July 1875 at Sholing, a suburb of the port of Southampton, the elder child and only son of the Revd Francis Davidson and his wife Alice, née Hodgskin. Francis Davidson was the vicar of St Mary's, Sholing, a post to which he had been appointed in 1866. According to biographers, as many as 27 members of the Davidson family were or had been Anglican clergymen, while Alice Davidson was a great-neice of Thomas Arnold, the noted headmaster of Rugby School. Sholing was a poor parish, with a mixed population of dock labourers and itinerant workers, many inclined to drunkenness, with little interest in churchgoing. Francis Davidson, described by Harold Davidson's biographer Tom Cullen as as "a tiny man ... with a luxuriant beard that gave him the appearance of a gnome", served this parish faithfully for 48 years. Although he could be pugnacious when necessary, he was more noted for his kindness and compassion; a former parishioner recorded that he never turned anyone from his door, whatever the circumstances.

It was taken for granted in the Davidson family that Harold would follow his father into the priesthood. His upbringing was strict and constrained; he was not allowed to play with local children for fear of contamination. When he was six he began attending Banister Court School in Southampton, an establishment founded initially for the sons of Merchant Navy officers. Among his schoolmates was Maundy Gregory, later a central figure in various 20th century political scandals. In 1890 Harold was placed with two maiden aunts in Croydon while he attended the Whitgift School, an independent establishment founded in 1596 by John Whitgift, who was Archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of Elizabeth I. At Whitgift Harold was an indifferent scholar, his main energies being dispersed on extracurricular activities—chess, cycling, cricket and acting, the last-named encouraged by a friendship with a fellow-pupil, Leon Quartermaine, who later won recognition as a stage actor. In February 1894 the pair appeared together in a school production of the farce Sent to the Tower. Influenced by his aunts, Harold became a part-time worker at Toynbee Hall, an East End charity founded by Samuel and Henrietta Barnett that attracted many volunteers from schools and universities. These diversions destroyed any prospect of Harold winning the scholarship that would enable him to study for Holy Orders at Oxford, but this did not perturb him. In the face of his father's disapproval he had determined to pursue a career as a stage comedian.

Theatre, Oxford and ordination

Davidson's chosen theatrical genre was that of the "drawing-room entertainer", a genteel precursor of the stand-up comedy routines that became popular in the second half of the 20th century. Cullen describes this kind of performance as "n answer to the demand of a rising middle class which was neither cultured nor resourceful, but which wanted desperately to be diverted". Within a few months of leaving Whitgift in 1894, Davidson was on the London stage, at Steinway Hall in Lower Seymour Street, performing a comic routine. He was reasonably successful, and in the next few years found numerous provincial engagements in masonic lodges, literary societies and similar social organisations. Cullen suggests that his greatest triumph, however, was as a comic actor, in a touring production of Brandon Thomas's popular farce Charley's Aunt. Davidson played the part of Lord Fancourt Babberly, the patrician Oxford undergraduate who masquerades as the rich aunt of his fellow-student Charles Wykeham, a part for which Cullen believes he was eminently suitable.

In his own account of his life , Davidson stresses that he kept to the highest moral standards while on tour. He maintained the strict teetotalism that he had adopted since signing the pledge in his schooldays, and regularly visited the elderly in the towns in which he was performing, to give them bible readings. He also recounts an incident from the beginning of his career, when he was performing in London. He claims that while walking along the Embankment in a thick fog, he rescued a 16-year-old girl who was about to throw herself into the Thames. She was a runaway from her home in Cambridge who, after her money had run out, was "stranded on the London streets. Her pitiful story made a tremendous impression on me ... I have ever since ...kept my eyes open for opportunities to help that kind of girl".

Davidson's theatrical career lasted for four years. In 1898 he finally bowed to his father's wish that he should study for Holy Orders, after the intervention of the Revd Basil Wilberforce, grandson of the abolitionist William Wilberforce and a friend of the Davidson family. Wilberforce was the son of a Bishop of Oxford and an alumnus of Exeter College, Oxford, where he used his influence to secure Davidson a place, despite the latter's complete lack of qualifications. Davidson's record at Oxford mirrored that of his school career; notably eccentric in behaviour, he displayed enormous energy but disregarded rules, was persistently unpunctual, and failed every examination that he sat. He was a successful president of the Oxford Chess Club, but was otherwise isolated from college life, in part because his teetotalism and also because he was several years older than most of his fellow-undergraduates. He continued to appear on the stage when he could, and decorated the walls of his rooms with authographed pictures of actresses. By 1901 his academic inadequacies were such that he was required to leave Exeter College, although he was allowed to continue studying for his degree at Grindle's Hall, a cramming establishment. He finally passed his examinations in 1903, and that year was ordained by the Bishop of Oxford—after some reluctance of the part of the bishop to accept so unpromising a candidate.

In 1901 a further distraction had added itself, when Annie Horniman's travelling theatrical company visited Oxford. Davidson fell in love with one of the company's leading ladies, Moyra ("Molly") Cassandra Saurin, a blonde, blue-eyed beauty from County Meath in Ireland. The couple were quickly engaged, but the relationship was stormy and was several times broken off. There could be no question of marriage before Davidson was established in his new profession. His first church appointment, a prestigious one that demonstrated his family's excellent connections, was a curacy at Holy Trinity church, Windsor, Berkshire, with an additional role as assistant chaplain to the Household Cavalry at Combermere Barracks. In 1905 he was transferred to central London, as curate at St Martin's-in-the-Fields, where his energies and enthusiasm drew approving comments.

Rector of Stiffkey

Early years

On 8 August 1905 Davidson, as curate of St Martin's, presided at the marriage of the sixth Marquess Townshend to Gladys Sutherst. The union was not straightforward. Gladys was a would-be actress, the daughter of a bankrupt Yorkshire businessman, and was in search of a title; the marquess was looking for a rich bride to resolve his financial problems. Unaware of Glady's true situation, the marquess was keen to marry her, while his family, a noble Norfolk line with a long history of public and political service, was appalled, and threatened to have him certified if he went ahead. Davidson was an acquaintance of Sutherst, and may have acted as a mediator between the two factions. Whatever his role in these events, in May 1906 he was rewarded by appointment as Rector of Stiffkey with Morston, two Norfolk parishes within the marquess's gift. This was a highly desirable living, with 60 acres of glebe land, a large Georgian rectory and an income, in 1906, of £503 per annum, rising during Davidson's incumbency to £800.

The village of Stiffkey is close to the North Norfolk coast, on the A149 road between Hunstanton to the east and Sheringham to the west. It is described in a later guidebook as "a beautiful place, set in rolling country either side of the River Stiffkey, then on its seaward side ... salt marshes stretching out to the sea". Cullen's description of it, from the 1970s, is of "a withdrawn, inward-looking community, a village of secrets", However, in his 2007 account of Davidson's life, Jonathan Tucker writes of the village as a thriving holiday and weekend destination, with its formerly humble cottages much sought after as weekend homes. At the time of Davidson's arrival in 1906 Stiffkey, with a population of around 350, was generally impoverished, although according to Tucker plentifully supplied with shops and public houses. There was a two-roomed school. Davidson appears to have enjoyed good relations with most of the villagers, who referred to him with affection as "Little Jimmy"—he was only 5 feet 3 inches (1.60 metres) tall. He was less well regarded by the local gentry, including the main landowner, Colonel Groom, who fell out with Davidson after the priest rebuked him for keeping a mistress.

The apparent stability that came with the living enabled Davidson, on 9 October 1906, to marry Mollie Saurin. The Stiffkey rectory became a family home, as children were born at regular intervals. Davidson himself soon adopted the habit, which he retained throughout his incumbency, of spending most of his time in London, returning to his parish to take services at weekends. In London, he worked in the East End on behalf of exploited newspaper boys to improve their wages and working conditions. Through his friendship with Reginald Kennedy-Cox, whom he had met at Oxford, Davidson became involved in social work at the Malvern Mission, forerunner of the Dockland Settlements, of which he later became a trustee. Davidson also became chaplain to the Actors' Church Union, based at St Paul's, Covent Garden. In this role he was frequently to be found backstage in London's theatres, ministering to the needs of showgirls—sometimes with an unwelcomed degree of persistence. Between 1910 and 1913 he expanded this work to Paris, to which he made regular visits, sometimes acting as a chaperone for dancers recruited by the Folies Bergère. Many out-of-work and would-be actresses encountered by Davidson were invited to stay at the Stiffkey rectory—sometimes as many as 20 at a time—to the consternation of Molly Davidson and of some of the local establishment who feared for the morals of local farmhands. Among those most concerned was Major Philip Hamond, a churchwarden at Morston, who later became Davidson's principal adversary.

First World War

Davidson was 39 years old at the outbreak of war in 1914, and not liable for military service. Nevertheless, in October 1915, possibly as refuge from the increasing domestic turbulence at Stiffkey, he joined the Royal Navy as a chaplain. He began his service on HMS Gibraltar, a depot ship based in the Shetland Islands, where he exasperated and infuriated his shipmates by calling church parades at the most inconvenient of times, though with the full approval of the base commander, Vice-admiral Sir Reginald Tupper, who was known as "Holy Reggie". Davidson's service report from Gibraltar's captain records that "he performs his duties in a perfunctory manner. Not on good terms with messmates, disregards mess rules and regulations". In October 1916 Davidson was transferred to HMS Fox in the Middle East, and was quickly in trouble when arrested by the service police during a raid on a Cairo brothel. He explained his presence by claiming he was looking for a diseased prostitute who had been infecting his men. He received a severe warning from his commanding officer; his service report describes him as showing " a great lack of tact" and "on bad terms with a number of his messmates". Davidson remained with the Fox until August 1918 when he was posted to HMS Leviathan in the northern Atlantic. Here, his commander was slightly more complimentary; he found Davidson "a clever writer and entertainer pays attention to duty". Davidson left the Navy in March 1919.

"Prostitutes' Padre"

When Davidson returned home he found that Molly was six months pregnant. The dates of his leave from naval duties during the summer and autumn 1918 made it very unlikely that he was the father. A daughter was born on 21 June; rumours indicated that the likely father was a Canadian army colonel, Ernest Doudemain, a friend from Davidson's schooldays who was lodging at the rectory in the latter part of 1918. Although deeply upset by Molly's infidelity, Davidson accepted the child—who bore some resemblance to him—as his own. To escape from the imbroglio, Davidson applied for a year's posting as chaplain to a hill station at Simla in India, and engaged a locum to fulfill his parish duties in Stiffkey and Morston. The Indian post fell through, but Davidson still had to pay the locum, the Revd A. Blair, a fee of £150 to honour the contract he had made.

"The Reverend Mr Davidson's downfall ... was girls. Not a girl, not five or six girls even, not a hundred, but the entire tremulous universe of girlhood. Shingled heads, clear cheeky eyes, nifty legs, warm, blunt-fingered workaday hands, small firm breasts and, most importantly, good strong healthy teeth, besotted him."

With little incentive to remain in the poisoned atmosphere of the Stiffkey rectory, Davidson soon resumed his habit of spending his weeks in London. His pattern became that of departing first thing on Monday morning and returning late on Saturdays; he did this, says Ronald Blythe in his essay "The Rector of Stiffkey", "not just often, but regularly every week for years and years". Sometimes on the return journey, as the result of a missed rail connection, he would barely be in time for the 11 am service at Stiffkey, and sometimes he would fail altogether to arrive. His activities in London centred on the innumerable Lyons, ABC and Express Dairies teashops and their staffs of waitresses. Davidson was mesmerised, says Blythe, by "the ineffable harmonies created by starched linen crackling over young breasts and black-stockinged calves in chubby conference just below the hem of the parlourmaid's frock". Davidson, perhaps on the basis of his Thames-side rescue of long ago, had convinced himself that these girls, often no more than 16 years old, were in danger of drifting into vice. His mission was to rescue them; the prototype was Rose Ellis, whom Davidson met in September 1920, in Leicester Square. She was 20 but looked younger; living on the earnings of casual prostitution, she had no money and nowhere to spend the night. Davidson gave her the cash for a room, and arranged to meet her the following week. This was the beginning of a friendship that endured. Davidson brought her back to the rectory, where she worked for a time as a gardener. He also tried to get her a job with a touring theatre company, took her to Paris to find employment as an au pair, kept her supplied with small sums of cash, and paid her medical bills when she was suffering from venereal disease.

Rose Ellis was one of the first of many; according to his own later estimate, Davidson approached around 150 to 200 girls a year (in court he modified these figures to a total between 500 and 1000). Many of these rejected his advances and a number of teashops considered him a pest and barred him from entering. Landladies found him visiting their tenants at all hours of the day and night. There is little evidence, however, to suggest that his underlying motives were other than those that he maintained—saving young girls from the dangers of the streets. He bought them tea, found them rooms, listened to their problems and sometimes found them work on the stage or in domestic service. He styled himself the "Prostitutes' Padre" which, he asserted to his bishop, was "the proudest title that a true priest of Christ can hold".

Financial problems

To finance his chosen lifestyle, Davidson needed more money than his Stiffkey living could provide. He saw an opportunity to improve his financial position when, in about 1920, he met Arthur John Gordon, supposedly a wealthy American company promoter but in fact an undischarged bankrupt and confidence trickster. Gordon not only persuaded the gullible priest to invest his own savings in a range of dubious money-making schemes, but also had him solicit funds from other investors including his own solicitor, Harold Edwards, and the Revd Hugh Boswell Chapman, chaplain of the King's Chapel of the Savoy. Davidson borrowed heavily to increase his investment and by 1925 was in serious financial difficulties. In February that year he failed to pay his local rates and was threatened with imprisonment. He avoided this by borrowing from moneylenders at exorbitant interest rates, but in October was forced to file a petition of bankruptcy with debts totalling £2,924. Eventually a settlement was reached, whereby around £400—half of his Stiffkey stipend—was applied to the reduction of his debts, leaving Davidson and his family very short of income. Somehow, however, he managed to continue his London life. He never stopped believing in Gordon's essential honesty and that one day his investments would pay off; much of his time in London was spent, not in pursuit of girls, but in pursuit of or in consultation with Gordon.

Downfall and deposition

Complaints and investigations

"I can earnestly assure you in the sight of God that my conscience is free from any knowledge of breach of the moral law ... or of vice of any form with women or girls ... I believe with all my soul that if were born again in London in the present day he would be found constantly walking in Piccadilly"

Despite his eccentric approach to his parochial duties, most of Davidson's parishioners were fond of him and accepted that his mission to rescue girls from the London streets was entirely above board. Some, however, were less impressed, among whom was the Morston churchwarden, Major Hamond. He was suspicious of the London activities and of the constant stream of visitors to the Stiffkey rectory, and thought that in constantly absenting himself Davidson was neglectful of his proper duties toward his parishes. In 1927 relations between the two men worsened when Davidson, in a letter which Tucker describes as "breathless in its rudeness and insensitivity to a man who had been recently bereaved", upbraided the major for clearing the ground in the Morston churchyard alongside his recently-deceased wife's grave: "Morston Churchyard is the private freehold property of the Rector of Morston ... you have no possible right to interfere with it in any way without my permission any more than I have the right to come and annex a part of your garden." On one occasion, Davidson arrived late at Morston to officiate at a Communion service, but had left the bread and wine at Stiffkey; enraged, Hamond ordered him back to the rectory to collect it. The final straw, in Hamond's eyes, was Davidson's failure, having missed his train back from London, to officiate at the 1930 Armistice Day ceremony at the local war memorial.

Early in 1931, acting on the advice of a cousin who was a clergyman, Hamond registered a formal complaint against Davidson with the Bishop of Norwich, the Right Revd Bertram Pollock, using the provisions of Article 2 of the Clergy Discipline Act of 1892. The basis of the complaint was not Davidson's neglect of parish duties but his supposed activities in London with women. Under the Act, following a complaint clergy could be prosecuted for "immoral acts" and, if convicted by a Consistory Court, face punishments ranging from a period of suspension to full deposition from Holy Orders—the process known as "defrocking". Any parishioner could raise a complaint, though it was for the bishop to decide whether to let the matter go to court. Pollock was initially reluctant to prosecute Davidson, but on the advise of his legal counsel Henry Dashwood, decided that the case should proceed. A private enquiry agent was employed to seek out evidence and soon found Rose Ellis who, after being plied liberally with drinks, signed a long statement detailing her 10-year association with Davidson. This statement—which she immediately retracted and was never presented in court—contained little evidence of any immoral relationship beyond the fact that she had once lanced a boil on the priest's bottom.

The enquiry agent's activities continued for months. In letters and meetings with the bishop and Dashwood in December 1931 and January 1932, Davidson offered to resign his living if the charges against him were dropped, but Pollock was advised by Dashwood that this was no longer viable. The press was by now in possession of the story, which it broadcast with lurid headlines; there was wide public interest and the matter could no longer be hushed up. On 7 February 1932 the bishop received a letter from a 17-year-old girl, Barbara Harris, which contained specific allegations of immoral conduct against Davidson and promised more: "I know lots of things against him that might help you ... He has the keys of a lot a lot of girls [sic] flats and front doors."

Consistory Court hearing

The Consistory Court for the Diocese of Norwich was convened for 29 March 1932, under the presidency of the diocesan chancellor, F. Keppel North, to hear five charges against Davidson. These accused him of improper behaviour, habitual association with "women of loose character", and "accosting, molesting, and importuning young females for immoral purposes". Two of the charges referred specifically to Rose Ellis and Barbara Harris respectively. Representing the Bishop of Norwich in the case against Davidson was a team headed by Roland Oliver KC, which included the future cabinet minister Walter Monckton. Davidson raised sufficient funds from friends and from the sale of newspaper stories to ensure he was represented by experienced lawyers throughout the hearing. Because of the extent of press interest, and the number of London-based witnesses likely to be called, the court sat in Church House, Westminster rather than in Norwich.

When the case began, after providing a detailed description of Davidson's life in London, Oliver called Barbara Harris to the stand. Her February letter to Pollock, described by Matthew Parris in his account of the trial as "a masterpiece of vituperation", made her a dangerous witness from Davidson's viewpoint. Davidson had begun the association in September 1930, when Harris was 16. Meeting her near Marble Arch, he had affected to confuse her with a well-known film actress—a common means whereby Davidson introduced himself to young women—and used this contrivance to persuade her to take a meal with him. Without initially revealing himself as a priest, he became a regular visitor to her lodgings, gave her small sums of money and promised to find her work. From time to time he shared rooms with her: "At first he kept to the chair", Harris wrote, "but after the first few nights he did not". In her evidence to the court she maintained that she had not had intercourse with Davidson, though he had attempted this on several occasions; when she had repulsed his advances, she claimed that he had "relieved himself".

Other aspects of the peculiar relationship were revealed during Harris' lengthy examination and cross-examination: her visit to the Stiffkey rectory where she had been made to work as an unpaid kitchenmaid and given only a chair to sleep in; Davidson's repeated promises to divorce his wife and marry Harris; an incident when she and another girl, the latter in a nightgown, had danced in front of Davidson, supposedly so that he could judge their dancing abilities. The picture that Harris' letter and evidence presented, if it was to be believed was, Tucker says, that of "a man who is out of control ... running around London entertaining teenage girls ... adopting the guise of a kindly priest to ingratiate himself". Asked to confirm that it was Davidson's habit to greet all strangers by putting his arms on their shoulders, Harris replied that he only did this with girls. Cullen likens her evidence to "a whip of scorpions" that Davidson had taken full in the face.

Harris was followed into the witness-box by a succession of landladies, waitresses and other women, all of whom confirmed Davidson's habitual pestering and minor molestations. One former Lyons waitress said that he had once followed her to the women's cloakroom before being ejected by the management, though none of these witnesses made any serious charge of misconduct. Hamond testified on Davidson's absence on Armistice Day. Davidson's disastrous finances were aired—he took great offence when his association with Gordon was presented as a "partnership in crime". When Davidson himself took to the stand, his light-hearted, even flippant manner created, says Tucker, "the flavour of a comedy routine with the rector's counsel as straight man". Davidson caused disbelief and amusement in the court when, questioned about the boil-lancing incident with Rose Ellis, he professed not to know what a "buttock" was: "It is a phrase I have honestly never heard. So far as I remember it is a little below the waist." However, at this stage, only Barbara Harris's largely uncorroborated testimony had provided direct evidence of immorality as distinct from eccentric or inappropriate behaviour; the rest of the evidence was inconclusive and there was no certainty that the prosecution would succeed. Davidson's cause was virtually lost, however, when the prosecution produced a photograph of him in a semi-embrace with a nearly naked girl, 15-year-old Estelle Douglas, the daughter of one of his oldest friends. Davidson protested that the photograph was the result of a set-up, that he had been entrapped and that he had no idea that the girl was almost naked—it is the back of her body that is exposed in the photograph, her front is covered by a shawl. On 6 June, after closing speeches from both sides, the court adjourned until 8 July to allow the chancellor, who alone would determine the outcome, to consider his verdict.

Verdict, sentence, defrocking

Davidson remained as rector of Stiffkey and Morston during the court proceedings, and continued to take services, although his erratic attendance meant that substitutes often had to be arranged at short notice. On at least one occasion this led to an embarrassing contretemps; on 12 June 1932, just after the court hearings closed, the Revd R.H. Catell was instructed by the bishop to take the evening service at Stiffkey. He had just begun when Davidson entered the church and, after some whispered words, attempted to seize the bible from Catell. The two priests wrestled with the bible for some seconds before Catell yielded, telling the congregation: "As nothing short of force will prevent Mr Davidson from taking part, I can see nothing left to do but to withdraw." Large numbers of reporters and sightseers tended to crowd into Stiffkey and Morston each weekend; the Archdeacon of Lynn issued a statement deploring the "media circus", and asking that "the full spirit of worship" be restored to the services.

On 8 July the Consistory Court reconvened and Keppel North delivered his verdict: Davidson was found guilty on all five counts but only arrived only in time to hear the latter part of the chancellor's judgement. The sentence would be determined in due course by the bishop; meantime, Davidson had the right of appeal to the Privy Council. Sorely in need of funds to meet his continuing legal expenses, Davidson now reverted to his earlier career as a stage entertainer. On 18 July he made his debut with a variety act at the Prince's Cinema in Wimbledon, and later toured in the provinces until, perhaps dissuaded from hiring Davidson by pressure from Church authorities, theatres declined to book him. He then continued his public performances by appearing in a barrel on the Blackpool sea front, or "Golden Mile", where thousands paid a few pence to observe him through a small window. Not everyone was impressed; one customer, recalling the event years later, said: "He was very tatty and the place stank". He shared his sea front billing with, among other attractions, "Mariana the Gorilla Girl", "the Bearded Lady from Russia" and Dick Harrow, "the world's fattest man".

To the consternation of Hamond and some other parishioners, the bishop delayed issuing an instruction forbidding Davidson to preach, and he often returned to Stiffkey on Sundays to officiate at services. When Hamond locked the Morston church against him, the rector preached to a large congregation on the grass outside the church. On another occasion Davidson demanded the church keys from Hamond, who sent him away by turning him round and administering a substantial kick. Hamond was later fined for this assault. In August the bishop finally withdrew Davidson's right to preach; his last service was morning worship at Stiffkey on 21 August 1932, when around 1,000 people congregated outside the church.

Davidson made two appeals to the Privy Council, both of which failed. On 21 October, at a special sitting of the Consistory Court in Norwich Cathedral, Bishop Pollock pronounced sentence. Before this, Davidson was allowed briefly to address the court. He asserted his innocence "of any of the graver charges that have been made against me" and also saying that "there is not one single deed which I shall not do again with the help of God, if perhaps a little more discreetly". Then, in what Blythe describes as a "horrible little ceremony", the bishop delivered the sentence of deposition: "Now therefore we, Bertram ... do thereby pronounce decree and declare that the said Reverend Harold Francis Davidson being a priest and deacon ought to be entirely removed, deposed and degraded from the said offices." Davidson was thus defrocked. As the ceremony ended he made a final impromptu speech, expressing his belief that when "evidence that has lately come into my possession" was investigated, the sentence would be reversed. He intended, he said, to exercise his right to appeal to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Campaigning for reinstatement

Blackpool showman

"The campaign to clear his name, very real at first, declined with gimmicky tricks until it became an outré side-show in which goggle-eyed holidaymakers would cram themselves to see a real live Sunday newspaper sensation".

The Consistory Court had awarded the prosecution's costs against Davidson, who now faced enormous legal bills and had no regular source of income. He was also determined to to pursue his cause in the hopes of eventual reinstatement. His only immediate recourse was to return to Blackpool and resume his career as a showman. This became his milieu for the next four years, interrupted by occasional prosections for obstruction and a nine-day spell in prison in 1933, for non-payment of rent owing to one of his former London landladies. He informed the press: "While I am in the barrel I shall be occupied in preparing my case". Although the barrel act remained his staple he informed the press) he introduced variations over the years: freezing in a refrigerated chamber, or being roasted in a glass-fronted oven while a mechanised devil prodded him in the rear with a pitchfork. In August 1935 the freezing routine led to Davidson's arrest and prosecution for attemped suicide; he won the case and was awarded £382 damages for false imprisonment.</ref> How much money Davidson made from his various Golden Mile appearances is uncertain; Tucker believes that the main beneficiary of the various performances was Luke Gannon, Davidson's agent.

Molly Davidson had used the proceeds of some life insurance policies to acquire a small house in South Harrow, where Davidson spent his winters. He worked spasmodically, at one time as a door-to-door book salesman and on other as a porter at St Pancras railway station. He could not keep himself out of trouble; in November 1936 he was arrested and fined for pestering two 16-year-old girls at Victoria Station. He had approached them offering to audition them for a leading role in a West End theatrical production. That same month he interrupted a Church Assembly at Central Hall, Westminster at which [[Cosmo Gordon Lang|the Archbishop of Canterbury was present. He was prevented from addressing the meeting, at which he dropped numerous copies of his mimeographed pamphlet "I Accuse", in which he had listed his grievances and castigated the Church hierarchy that had brought him down.

Death in Skegness

For the summer season in 1937 Davidson worked at Thompsons' Amusement Park in Skegness, where he was billed as "A modern Daniel in a lion's den". He would enter a cage with a lion called Freddie and a lioness called Toto, and talk for about ten minutes about the injustice he felt had been meted out to him. On 28 July, he was moving through his act when he accidentally tripped on the tail of the lioness. Presumably perceiving this as an attack, Freddie the lion attacked and mauled him. Renee Somer, the 16-year-old lion attendant, entered the cage and fought the lion back using a 3 ft whip and an iron bar.

Davidson was taken to Skegness Cottage Hospital with a neck injury and broken collar-bone and lacerations on his upper body. The lion had mauled him at the neck leaving a gash behind his left ear.

A coroner's jury returned a verdict of death by misadventure.

Davidson was buried in Stiffkey churchyard. Thousands crammed into the village to attend the funeral service. Round the sides of his grave, in gold lettering, is a favourite quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson which says "For on Faith in Man and genuine Love of Man all searching after Truth must be founded."

Aftermath

The strange story of the Rector of Stiffkey has been the subject of several fictionalised retellings. David Wood with David Wright wrote a two-act treatment, A Life in Bedrooms, produced in Edinburgh in 1967 and later as The Stiffkey Scandals of 1932 on BBC2 TV and at the Queen's Theatre in London in 1968, which trod a middle ground on Davidson's guilt or innocence. This was subsequently revived as The Prostitute's Padre at Norwich Playhouse in 1997.

A musical, And God Made the Little Green Apple, was staged at the Stables Theatre, Manchester in 1969. Stuart Douglas wrote a play in 1972, The Vicar of Soho, which portrays Davidson as a politically naive but well-intentioned social reformer. Ken Russell made a 1990 underground film, Lion's Mouth, based on the scandal; the central character is a female journalist on the Skegness Sentinel. A 2009 stage production, The Missionary's Position, gives an amusing variety music hall style portrayal of Davidson as a naive buffoon but leaves his guilt open to question.

John Walsh's novel about Davidson's life, Sunday at the Cross Bones, was published on 8 May 2007.

The 1982 film The Missionary, starring Michael Palin, tells a similar story but is set in the Edwardian period.

Many documents concerning the case are now in the public arena, except his personal letters and papers which remain with his family. The documents have been used by Davidson's descendants and the present priest at Stiffkey as evidence that he was not guilty of the charges which were found proved against him. A BBC regional documentary in 2004 showed their attempts to posthumously exonerate him.

The death of Davidson has echoes of the unlikely death of Hannah Twynnoy, killed by a tiger in England.

Notes and refererences

Notes

1. A fuller account of the circumstances of the Townshend marriage, its subsequent progress and its consequences is found in The Daily Telegraph obituary of the seventh Marquess (son of the sixth), who died in 2010 aged 93.
2. In England, every parish has a "patron", responsible for the appointment of incumbent clergy. Traditionally, patrons were members of the nobility or landed gentry; following late 20th-century legislation, most patronage passed to bishops, other church bodies or the Crown, though some remains in private hands.
3. Cullen indicates that this was a very handsome living. Thirty years later, only about half of the Church of England's 12,000 parishes were worth more than £400 a year to their incumbents, and even in 1962 many clergymen earned no more than £600 a year – less than a bus driver's earnings.
4. Some sources, including Blythe (1964) and Parris (1998), maintain that the village name is pronounced "Stewkey". Cullen in 1975, and Tucker in 2007, found that the locals pronounced the name as spelt. Cullen records that "Stewkey" refers only to the "Stewkey Blues" cockles, found on the nearby seashore.
5. Davidson continued this work for the remainder of his years as rector. His activities in raising funds and soliciting volunteer helpers were noted with approval on a visit to the East End by Queen Mary.
6. Sir Reginald Tupper (1859–1945) retired from the Navy in 1921, and was an early member of the "British Fascisti", an early British fascist organisation which attracted a number of high-ranking naval and military officers.
7. The daughter, born Pamela Cushla le Poer Davidson, lived until 2001. She always maintained that Doudemain was her real father, though she was fond of Davidson and often stayed with him in Blackpool and Skegness, after his removal from Stiffkey.
8. In Cullen's account Blair "stuck to the Stiffkey rectory like a barnacle", though it is not clear whether he carried out parochial duties or simply sat out his year.
9. Both Tucker and Cullen record that Davidson invested around £5000 with Gordon, a sum more than six times his gross stipend.
10. Tucker raises a point, not mentioned by Davidson's lawyers, that the letter to the bishop is written in block letters, which does not tally with other examples of Harris' handwriting, nor is the signature consistent with that on other letters. The possibility that the letter to the bishop was not genuine, Tucker argues, could have "brought the prosecution's case crashing down".
11. On 30 July 1932 Davidson was refused leave appeal to the Privy Council on questions of fact. On 13 October leave was likewise refused, this time on grounds of law.

Citations

1. Tucker, p. xiii
2. Cullen, p. 26
3. ^ Tucker, pp. 1–2
4. ^ Cullen, p. 27
5. ^ Cullen, pp. 28–30
6. "Whitgift School". Independent schools Council. Retrieved 27 May 2013.
7. ^ Cullen, pp. 30–31
8. Tucker, p. 3
9. Cullen, p. 33
10. ^ Brown, Robert. "Davidson, Harold Francis (1875–1937)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 28 May 2013. (subscription required) Cite error: The named reference "ODNB" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
11. ^ Tucker, pp. 4–5
12. ^ Cullen, pp. 34–35
13. ^ Tucker, pp. 6–7
14. ^ Cullen, pp. 38–39
15. "Marquess Townshend". The Daily Telegraph. 29 April 2010.
16. Cullen, p. 40
17. "Clergy Appointments: Why Patronage?". Church Society Trust. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
18. Lyall, p. 27
19. Cullen, p. 37
20. Blythe, p. 156; Parris, p. 47; Tucker, p. 7; Cullen, p. 38
21. Tucker, p. 8
22. Cullen, p. 15
23. Parris, p. 47
24. Tucker, p. 113
25. Cullen, pp. 40–42
26. ^ Tucker, pp. 13–14
27. Cullen, pp. 43–44
28. Blythe, p. 171
29. Cullen, pp. 42–43 and p. 59
30. ^ Cullen, pp. 45–46
31. Linehan, p. 156
32. ^ Tucker, pp. 15–16
33. "Obituary: Pamela Nelson-Edwards". The Daily Telegraph. 12 March 2001.
34. ^ Cullen, p. 47
35. ^ Blythe, p. 157
36. Tucker, pp. 25–26
37. ^ Blythe, p. 161
38. Blythe, pp. 158–159
39. Cullen, pp. 48–49
40. Tucker, pp. 30–31
41. Cullen, p. 129
42. Cullen, p. 13
43. ^ Cullen, pp. 51–52
44. Tucker, p. 17
45. Tucker, pp. 18–19 and 144–45
46. Cullen, p. 57
47. Quoted in Tucker, pp. 34–35
48. ^ Cullen, pp. 58–59
49. Tucker, pp. 22–23
50. Parris, p. 50
51. Tucker, pp. 27
52. Tucker, p. 19
53. Tucker, p. 29
54. Tucker, pp 31–32
55. Tucker, pp. 35–37
56. Parris, pp. 52–55
57. ^ Parris, p. 56
58. Tucker, pp. 42–43
59. Tucker, pp. 69–72
60. Tucker, pp. 44–48
61. Parris, p. 56
62. Tucker, pp. 156–57
63. Cullen, pp. 94–95
64. Parris, p. 53
65. ^ Parris, pp. 57–58
66. ^ Tucker, p. 55
67. Tucker, p. 47
68. Tucker, p. 57
69. Blythe, p. 57
70. Cullen, p. 124
71. Cullen, p. 93
72. Blythe, p. 168
73. Tucker, p. 82
74. Tucker, p. 76.
75. Cullen, pp. 147–48
76. Tucker, pp. 87–88
77. Cullen, pp. 153–56
78. Tucker, p. 100
79. Cullen, p. 167
80. Tucker, pp. 101–03
81. Tucker, pp. 105–09
82. ^ Tucker, pp. 116–17
83. Tucker, pp. 127–128
84. Tucker, p. 113
85. Cullen, p. 172
86. Parris, p. 61
87. Tucker, pp. 116 and 120
88. Tucker, pp. 120–23
89. Blythe, p. 174
90. Cullen, p. 174
91. Tucker, p. 124
92. Blythe, p. 177
93. Blythe, p. 177
94. ^ Cullen, pp. 189–90
95. Cullen, p. 187
96. Tucker, p. 136
97. Tucker, p. 131
98. "Lion attacks ex-rector of Stiffkey: Girl of 16 rescues him", Daily Mirror Late Lon Ed, pp. 1 & 28, 29 July 1937
99. "Neck broken, he talks to his children", Daily Mirror (Late Lon Ed), p. 27, 30 July 1937
100. "Dying ex-rector asks to hear stories of his last adventure", Daily Mirror (London Ed), pp. 3 & 4, 31 July 1937
101. Evening Post, 2 August 1937
102. Crowds Fight Wildly at Stiffkey Grave, The Straits Times, 14 August 1937
103. David Wood's biography
104. The rector of Stiffkey: Britain's most infamous clergyman - Features, Books - The Independent at enjoyment.independent.co.uk
105. "My Innocent Grandfather" by Karilyn Collier Church Times, 6 July 2007, p.18

Bibliography

• Blythe, Ronald (1964). The Age of Illusion: England in the Twenties and Thirties, 1919-1940 (Ch. 8: "The Rector of Stiffkey"). Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books. OCLC 10971329.
• Cullen, Tom (1975). The Prostitutes' Padre. London: The Bodley Head. ISBN 0-370-10285-1.
• Gardiner, Juliet (2011). The Thirties: An Intimate History. London: HarperPress. ISBN 978-0-00-731453-9. {{cite book}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
• Linehan, Thomas (2000). British Fascism, 1918-39: Parties, Ideology and Culture. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-5023-5.
• Lyall, Ian (2007). Explore the North Norfolk Coast. London: Lulu Enterprises. ISBN 978-1-84753-681-5.
• Parris, Matthew (1999). The Great Unfrocked (Ch. "Harold Davidson, Rector of Stiffkey", pp. 47–64). London: Robson Books. ISBN 1-86105-263-4.
• Pugh, Martin (2009). We Danced All Night: A Social History of Britain Between the Wars. London: Vintage Books. ISBN 978-1-84413-923-1.
• Taylor, A.J.P. (1970). English History 1914–45. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-021181-0.
• Tucker, Jonathan (2007). The Troublesome Priest. Norwich: Michael Russell. ISBN 978-0-85955-307-0.

External links

• BBC Inside Out profile arguing for Davidson's innocence
• Norfolk History and Past Times
• Rector of Stiffkey website written by his granddaughter, Karilyn Collier

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• 1937 deaths
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