ALBERT AITKENS

After the series of vicars who came and went in the 1880s the last years of the 19^th century and the early 20^th century saw some longer incumbencies with just three vicars over 37 years.

The Reverend Albert Aitkens arrived in 1890, His father was a successful builder who had worked with the architect John Nash on some of London’s regency houses, however Albert was orphaned at the age of just five after the early deaths of his mother and father being then brought up by his maternal grandparents before attending Rugby school and St. John’s Cambridge. He served in several parishes across the south of the country both as curate and vicar as well as a spell as chaplain at the Royal United Hospital Bath.

Albert seems to have been fairly well off and of some social standing, a son married the daughter of a Lord Mayor of London in a grand wedding at St. Pauls Cathedral so he was probably not dependent on the modest income he would have received here. In 1894 there was a controversy surrounding the burial of Mr. C. W. Barnard landlord of The Crown. Barnard was a member of the Ancient Order of Foresters and members of the society attending the ceremony had an issue with the vicar who wanted the ceremony conducted at the graveside while the A.O.B. members felt that it should be conducted in the church. Aitkens was already 62 when he came to Stowupland his final parish before his retirement to Boscombe in Hampshire.