By Ellie Jones, Cathedral Archivist
The ‘Devon in the 1920s’ festival has been running throughout the year, with events across the county. This week, our monthly In Focus event was all about “Exeter Cathedral in the 1920s”. It was a chance to celebrate the many hours of work the team has put in over recent months, extracting information from the Archives to build up a better picture of activities at the Cathedral. These are just a few of the stories that have come to the fore…
The Cathedral was feeling the impact of the First World War as much as the rest of society. The clergy, staff, choir and community were personally impacted, and the administration of the Cathedral and Cathedral School were struggling financially. The “Half-a-million-shillings” appeal was launched to raise the funds necessary to repair the fabric of the Cathedral, and the School had a determined drive to recruit more pupils and choristers.
People were living with the trauma and losses of war and several memorials were installed at the Cathedral. Plaques were placed inside, including one on the western wall dedicated to the Wessex Field Ambulances. In 1920 figures of the patron saints of the Allied nations were placed in the niches of the north porch, and in 1921 the Prince of Wales unveiled Edward Lutyens’ Devon County War Memorial on the Green.
In 1922 Henry Reginald Gamble (Dean of Exeter from 1918 to 1931), whose two children were part of the “Bright Young Things” social scene in the 1920s, accidentally courted controversy when he wrote to a friend about allowing the choristers to go to the sports fields to play cricket on Sundays. A popular move with many, advocating for this improvement to the boys’ Sunday sports also angered many, who thought it represented a breach of morals and Sunday tradition.
The appointment in 1923 of Daphne Drake as the first female cathedral glazier in the United Kingdom (in succession to her father, Maurice Drake, and grandfather, Frederick Drake, who had died in 1921 and 1923), made headlines. One newspaper article at the time noted that Exeter also had the first “woman stockbroker” and “an enterprising woman engineer, Miss Partridge BSc, who specialises in electric lighting”.
Bishop Cecil’s daughter Eve was the last of his three daughters to get married. When she married Com. Richard Shelley RN in the Cathedral in May 1929 it was a huge affair, with 1400 guests, 11 bridesmaids and 2 page boys. Her long white velvet dress, trimmed with orange blossoms and a diamond brooch was noted for its loveliness. The clergy of the diocese “united in presenting her with a silver tea-tray to mark their appreciation of her work”.
We will save the saga of the acquisition of a mysterious motor mowing machine and other tales of the twenties for another day…There are simply too many stories of life at the Cathedral in the 1920s to share in this edition of Cathedral Life!
Join us, if you can, at the Exeter in the 1920s Fayre and Show on Saturday 11 October where you will be able to find out even more.