SHERARD MONTAGUE STATHAM

As the 1880s drew to a close Sherard Montagu Statham followed the succession of vicars who had come and gone in the previous years. He was the son of a Surrey clergyman and after leaving Queens College Cambridge had spent time as a curate in Birmingham and teaching at his own school in Eastbourne. He also took a degree in law at Trinity College Dublin.

His later career included church posts in Somerset, Kent, Oxfordshire, and Southwark. He was also for some years chaplain to the military prison in Dover, his time here no doubt inspiring his publication “Prison Reminiscences; One Hundred Brief Aids to Extempore Preaching; Sermons, etc.” one of several theological works he wrote in his retirement. He died at Cottisford rectory Oxfordshire in 1947.