Walter Hook

He was one of the astonishing figures in the life of Sussex, and indeed one of the wonders of his generation. There is something almost incredible in the story of his tireless enthusiasm and incessant energy.

He had gone as vicar to Leeds at the beginning of the Victorian Era, to find that the church was hopelessly inadequate for a rapidly growing industrial town, and he secured an Act of Parliament creating 20 new parishes, which he organised with energy and enthusiasm, so that there were 36 churches at Leeds when he left in 1859. There were also 30 schools in place of the three he found there.

In 1846 he proposed compulsory teaching on the lines which were adopted 60 years later. In the teeth of bitter opposition by rich manufacturers, he supported Lord Shaftesbury's Factory Bill. He was appointed arbitrator by the miners in a local strike, and was a popular lecturer.

When he came to Chichester he devoted himself to his monumental work on the Lives of the Archbishops, which covered so wide a range as to be a history of the Church of England.

Though the cathedral spire collapsed in 1861, and the new dean worked hard to collect funds for its rebuilding, his literary work was not allowed to suffer. Like John Wesley, he found time by beginning his day at five in the morning, and, like Wesley too, he was a prodigious writer of letters.

Full of humour and common sense, he was one of the most potential men of his day.

 

 

 

 

 

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