Arthur Perowne

Perowne was born into a distinguished ecclesiastical family: he was the fourth son of John Perowne, sometime Bishop of Worcester and Anna Woolrych,[1] his uncles Thomas and Edward were Archdeacon of Norwich and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge respectively and his first-cousin Thomas also Archdeacon of Norwich. He was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College and King's College, Cambridge (he was admitted 4 October 1886, matriculated that Michaelmas, and gained the degrees of Bachelor of Arts {BA, 1889}, Cambridge Master of Arts {MA(Cantab), 1893}, and Doctor of Divinity {DD, 1920}).[2][3]

Having been assistant master at Magdalen College Choir School, Oxford since 1890, Perowne was ordained a deacon on Trinity Sunday (28 May) 1893[4] and a priest on Trinity Sunday (20 May) 1894 (both times by his father, the Bishop of Worcester, in Worcester Cathedral),[5] beginning his ministry with his title post as a curate at Hartlebury, Worcestershire[6] (being also a chaplain to his father, the Bishop).[1] His first incumbency was as Vicar of St Philip & St James, Hallow, Worcestershire (1901–1904),[2] after which he became Vicar of St George's Edgbaston, Warwickshire from 1904, Rural Dean of Edgbaston[7] from 1905 and an honorary canon of Birmingham Cathedral from 1912.

In 1913, he left all three posts in Warks for Devon, where he became Vicar of St Andrew's, Plymouth; he became additionally Rural Dean for the Three Towns (i.e. the wider Borough of Plymouth), 1914–1918, a Prebendary of Exeter Cathedral from 1917, Archdeacon of Plymouth from 1918, and a Chaplain to the King from 1918, remaining as Vicar of Plymouth throughout, until he relinquished them all in 1920.[2]

His appointment to become Bishop of Bradford, the first bishop diocesan of the new Diocese of Bradford, was announced on 12 December 1919,[8] and he was ordained and consecrated a bishop by Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of York, at York Minster on Candlemas (2 February) 1910.[9] He was translated to become Bishop of Worcester (in which See his father had served until 1901) in 1931[10] and retired in 1941.[2]

In 1895, he married Helena Frances Oldnall-Russell (1869–1922). They had three sons:[2] Francis Edward Perowne (1898–1988), Stewart Perowne, a diplomat, archaeologist and historian, and Leslie Arthur Perowne (1906–1997), sometime Head of Music at the BBC, who was responsible for bringing Albert Ketèlbey out of retirement to conduct a huge BBC Ketèlbey Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, prior to World War II.

A keen fisherman,[1] he lived retirement in Gloucester (where he died)[11] with his second wife, Mabel (1886–1968), the second daughter of Thomas Henry Bailey of Wyldcroft in Wokingham, whom he had married in 1926.[2]

• Portraits of Perowne, Arthur William Thomson at the National Portrait Gallery, London