Introduction
Ralph Fitz James Sawyer pursued three distinct careers as a barrister, schoolmaster and Church of England clergyman. Although these changes appear dramatic, his life reveals considerable continuity in his commitment to public service, politics, education and the Church, influenced in part by his parents.
Family background
Ralph Fitz James Sawyer was born in Birmingham, probably at 22 Temple House, St Philips, on 18 February 1881, as the youngest of four children of James Sawyer and his wife, Adelaide Mary (née Hill).[1]
His father was a professor at Queen’s College, Birmingham, a senior physician at Queen’s Hospital, and the owner of a private practice.[2] His mother was the daughter of the Rev. John Harwood Hill, who served as the rector of Cranoe, Lincolnshire, from 1837 until his death in 1886.[3]
By October 1885, the family had moved to Green Oaks, Hagley Road, Edgbaston.[4] James Sawyer was knighted in 1885 at the instigation of Randolph Churchill, who wanted him to lead a Conservative Party revival in the city.[5] James hosted Churchill and his wife at Green Oaks in July 1889.[6]
In 1890, the family moved to the Haseley Hall estate near Warwick. James remodelled the house in Tudor-Elizabethan style, creating a personal retreat, complete with beautiful gardens, medicinal herbs, and historical artefacts. The family adopted an aristocratic lifestyle, presenting their two daughters to royalty, holding a coming-of-age ball for their eldest son, and hosting garden parties, fetes, and flower shows for the Primrose League and local villagers.[7] These activities were consistent with Sir James’s evident desire to cultivate status and influence. He came from a relatively humble background, being the son of a Carlisle chemist, and his success as a doctor relied as much on personal connections and self-promotion as it did on professional expertise.
Scholar
Ralph was educated at Warwick School. At the school prize-giving in 1891, he was named proximus accessit in Latin and French, indicating that he was placed second in those subjects.[8] In March 1898, he finished third in a 300-yard handicap flat race at the school sports day, and in July of that year, he won the Flory prize for elocution, for which the reward was the poetical works of Robert Browning in two volumes.[9]
In September 1898, an R. F. Sawyer of Marlborough House, Broadstairs, was recorded as having satisfied the examiners in a preliminary Oxford Local examination, possibly indicating a short period of private tuition in preparation for Oxford.[10] In October 1898, Ralph matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford as part of his preparation for the bar. He passed Responsions—the university’s first public examination, testing competence in Latin, Greek, and basic mathematics—and was examined and approved in additional subjects.[11]
While at Oxford, Ralph remained close to his family, attending the Warneford Hospital Ball with his parents in January 1899 and the Haseley Park Flower Show with his entire family in August 1899.[12] He also kept in touch with his old school. In October 1900, he sent a telegram apologising for missing the school’s commemoration on St. Edward’s Day, as he was at Islip, the birthplace of Edward the Confessor.[13] He later became an active member of the Old Warwickians and was elected to the committee in 1908.[14] As late as March 1938, he sent his apologies for missing a dinner.[15]
Barrister
In June 1901, he obtained a third-class degree in the Honour School of Jurisprudence.[16] He enrolled at the Inner Temple and was called to the Bar in November 1903.[17] He then began practising on the Midlands circuit under the name Fitz James Sawyer, and by September 1909, he had chambers at 10 Newhall Street, Birmingham.[18] In August 1914, he was appointed revising barrister for the Midland Circuit, overseeing the validity of electoral registers.[19]
As part of his professional development, he honed his debating skills. In October 1908, he was elected secretary of the Birmingham and Edgbaston Debating Society, the same month Neville Chamberlain was elected vice-president; and in September 1913, he was elected president.[20]
After he graduated from Oxford, his father introduced him to local Conservative Party politics. In April 1902, the two men attended the 10th annual meeting of the Midland Union of Conservative Associations at Melton Mowbray and in July 1902, they attended a Conservative Party lunch at the Westminster Palace Hotel in London.[21] Ralph also became involved with the local branch of the Primrose League, being elected secretary in July 1904.[22]
During the period 1904 to 1906, all three of Ralph’s siblings married: Amy to Dr Herbert Stanley French of Guy’s Hospital, Maud to Dr Harry Stallard, a general practitioner of Newark-on-Trent, and James to Margaret Longstaff Longstaff, the daughter of a wealthy chemicals manufacturer. Ralph was the best man at James’s wedding.[23]
In September 1909, Ralph’s engagement to Miss Winifred Mayzod Thomas was announced.[24] Winifred was of Welsh descent, being the youngest child of the Rev. David Thomas and his wife, Edith (née Powell), both of whom were born in Wales. David Thomas attended Jesus College, Oxford, and served as a Fellow at Trinity College from 1860 to 1872. He was vicar of Margam-with-Taibach from 1864 to 1871 before becoming the rector of Garsington.[25] Winifred was born and brought up at Garsington, and the circumstances of her meeting Ralph remain unclear.
The couple married at Haseley parish church on 9 December 1911 in a quiet ceremony, as Winifred’s father had died just eight weeks earlier. Winifred’s brother gave her away, while Ralph’s brother served as the best man.[26] For Ralph, the marriage renewed a connection with the clerical world of his mother’s family.
Winifred soon became involved in events at Haseley Hall. Sir James and his wife liked to provide a Christmas concert at the house for tenants and the household. At the 17th concert held on 23 December 1911, the musical accompaniment was provided by Winifred, Lady Sawyer and Ralph’s two sisters, and Ralph sang two songs.[27] Sir James Sawyer, Lady Sawyer, Ralph and Winifred also attended the Mayor of Birmingham’s annual ball in January 1912.[28]
Ralph and Winifred initially settled at 38 Stanmore Road, Edgbaston. Their daughter, Susan, was born on 16 February 1913, followed by their son, Mervyn, on 10 April 1914.[29]
Ralph had already begun to take an active interest in voluntary medical work through the British Red Cross. In 1910, Lady Sawyer took on a local leadership role with that organisation, using Haseley Hall as a venue for its activities, and drawing in Sir James and Ralph. In January 1911, Ralph was presented with a certificate for passing his St John’s Ambulance Association examination and in April 1911, Lady Sawyer nominated him for the post of Divisional Director of the British Red Cross.[30] By October 1911, he was serving as a stretcher bearer in the men’s detachment of Warwick North, and in September 1912, he took part in a Red Cross display at Haseley Hall.[31]
In June 1915, Ralph was appointed as Quartermaster at the 1st Southern General Hospital with the honorary rank of Lieutenant.[32] The hospital was primarily based in the University of Birmingham’s buildings. At this time, Ralph continued his work as a barrister, appearing in court in his khaki uniform.[33] He served as a captain in the Territorial Army Reserve of Officers from 1919 until at least 1934.[34]
Early in 1914, Sir James Sawyer suffered a severe illness that forced him to retire from public life.[35] He died on 27 January 1919 at the age of seventy-four due to epilepsy and heart failure.[36] He left an estate valued at £41,310 13s 10d, which he divided among his wife and children. His wife received £5,000, together with the use of his household effects, horses and carriages for life and the income from the remainder for life. After her death, the four children inherited equally.[37] Sir James’s executors sold Haseley Hall to a Birmingham company to serve as a workers’ country club, and his widow moved to Newark-on-Trent to be near Maud.[38]
Schoolmaster
After Sir James’s death, James Junior stepped back from his medical career and moved to Burwash in Sussex, while Ralph became a temporary assistant schoolmaster at Ipswich School. By 1922, Ralph had secured a permanent position at Wrekin College, Wellington, Shropshire, becoming a House Master in 1925.[39]
The timing of these changes suggests that Sir James’s death deeply affected both sons. At the time of his father’s death, James Junior was a physician at the Birmingham General Hospital, the assistant to the Professor of Medicine at the University of Birmingham, and administrator of the 1st Southern General Hospital with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was or had been the editor of the Birmingham Medical Review, and he had written several books on practice and diseases.[40] Despite these considerable achievements, he gave it all up at the age of forty-four. The closure of the 1st Southern General Hospital in April 1919 may have influenced this decision, but it does not fully account for his withdrawal from medicine. Whether their father’s death prompted either brother to re-evaluate his life cannot be known, but the coincidence is striking. Ralph became a schoolmaster, while James eventually devoted much of his time to the Scout movement, becoming a long-serving scoutmaster at Burwash and holding several higher offices, including Deputy County Commissioner.[41]
For Ralph, the change was considerable. He exchanged the competitive field of law for a profession focused on educating and developing others. However, there was also continuity, as he maintained an active interest in law and politics. He served on the Wellington Urban District Council from 1928 to 1931, and from 1929 to 1930, he was the assistant chairman of the Court of Referees, which heard appeals from workers whose unemployment benefits had been stopped. He was also the secretary of the Wrekin Conservative Association from 1930 to 1931.[42]
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Ralph was an active supporter of the League of Nations Union, a prominent interwar organisation that promoted international cooperation, peace and collective security. On Armistice Day, 1927, he was reported to have delivered a stirring speech at a meeting of the Union at Whitchurch, and from 1932 to 1934, he served as chairman of the Shropshire District Committee associated with the League of Nations Union.[43]
Priest
In his early fifties, Ralph decided to take holy orders. Up to that point, his recorded religious commitment had been limited to supporting Haseley church. He read the lesson at Haseley’s harvest thanksgiving services in 1905 and 1908, and in 1910, 1911, and 1913, he was elected as Haseley’s delegate to the ruridecanal conference.[44] The reasons for his decision to enter the priesthood remain unclear. However, his upbringing, his family’s patronage of Haseley Church, his mother’s and Winifred’s clerical backgrounds, and his pastoral role at Wrekin College may all have played a part.
Ralph studied at Wycliffe Hall, a conservative evangelical theological college at Oxford that trained men for ministry in the Church of England.[45] On 24 September 1933, he was ordained deacon at Lichfield Cathedral and licensed to serve as the assistant chaplain at Wrekin College.[46] The following year, he was ordained a priest.[47]
In 1934, his mother died at the age of eighty-four, leaving an estate valued at £5,761 18s 6d, which was administered by Ralph and his brother. Her will made various specific bequests of family heirlooms, including to Ralph, portraits in oil of his two grandfathers, a wineglass carried by his great-grandfather at the Battle of Waterloo, a large cup and saucer belonging to his great-grandfather, W. Georges, and a letter from Henry Matthews announcing that Birmingham had been made a city. She divided the remainder of her estate among her four children.[48] After her death, Ralph and his siblings inherited the remainder of their father’s estate, which meant that Ralph probably inherited around £6,000 in total, though the exact figure is uncertain.
When Ralph obtained probate for his mother’s will in October 1934, his address was Apley Home Farm, Wellington, Shropshire.
His mother’s death and the inheritance that followed coincided with another major change in Ralph’s life. He left Wrekin College and, in August 1935, was instituted to the living of Astley Abbots with Linley, near Bridgnorth.[49]
During his time at Astley Abbots, he attempted to revive the local branch of the League of Nations Union.[50] He was also a prominent member of the Bridgnorth and District Historical Society, reading papers to the members.[51]
In 1935, his son Mervyn married Dorothy Beatrice Sumption, the daughter of a dental technician. Mervyn was then training to become a solicitor, and he passed his final law examinations in November 1937.[52] They had two daughters, Chloe and Rosalind Louise, but divorced in the early 1940s. Mervyn died in Paphos, Cyprus, in 1991.
In April 1938, Ralph resigned as rector due to ill health and accepted the offer to become the rector of Hardington Mandeville.[53] While at Hardington, he conducted several funerals reported in the local newspapers, including those of Mrs Elizabeth Frances Genge in July 1939, Mrs Archer Vassall in March 1941 and Horace Budden in March 1943.[54] He officiated at the wedding of Gunner Alfred Cocksedge and Lily May Rendell at West Coker in November 1941, of Aircraftman Frederick Lock and Dorothy Roskelly in March 1942, and Philip Oxenbury and Marion Budden in October 1944.[55] He also witnessed and may have prepared the wills of Charles Eastment of Jubilee Cottage in January 1939, Samuel Purchase in August 1941, and Albert Marsh of 342 High Street in December 1944.[56]
Ralph also researched and wrote a history of the parish, although it was never published. This history includes a study of the arms of the local nobility, and heraldry appears to have been a particular interest of his. In 1931, he researched the armorials of Warwick School.[57] In pursuing local history, Ralph was following in the footsteps of his antiquarian grandfather, the Rev. John Harwood Hill, who published histories of Langton in 1867 and of Market Harborough in 1875.[58]
In April 1941, Ralph’s sister Maud died at Burwash, and he attended her funeral.[59] His other sister, Amy, died in December 1946 at Virginia Water.[60]
In July 1941, Ralph gave his daughter, Susan, away when she married Bertram Dexter Bailey at Haseley Church.[61] Tragically, her husband committed suicide seven months later while waiting to be called up by the RAF. Ralph gave evidence at the inquest about how the delay had preyed on his son-in-law’s mind.[62] Five months after Bertram’s death, Susan gave birth to their only child, Elizabeth.
In 1945, at the age of sixty-four, Ralph became Vicar of Leaton with Preston Gubbalds, two parishes about four miles north of Shrewsbury.[63] Susan and Elizabeth moved with him and Winifred to the vicarage at Leaton.
In November 1946, he spoke at the Lichfield Diocesan conference, stating that some of his fellow clergy were living in poverty and that the situation was desperate. He said that the work of the Church could not be carried out properly unless these priests were relieved of their financial worries.[64] In July 1951, he assisted with a memorial service at Wrekin College Chapel for Walter Maxwell Gordon, who had been the master of the college from 1923 to 1944.[65]
Ralph died at the Royal Salop Infirmary, Shrewsbury, on 13 November 1952 from colon cancer at the age of seventy-one. Susan registered his death.[66] He left an estate valued at £4,025 17s 1d, which he bequeathed entirely to Winifred. His will stated that if his son and daughter wanted a particular article of property, they could have it at valuation.[67]
The later life of Winifred and Susan
After Ralph’s death, Winifred, Susan and Elizabeth moved to Selsey in Sussex, living at Pinks Cottage, East Street, in 1957 and Eastergate, Ursula Avenue, in 1958. Winifred died at St. Richard’s Hospital, Chichester, on 31 March 1958 at the age of sixty-nine, leaving an estate valued at £4,674 7s 10d.[68]
Shortly before her mother’s death, Susan married Andrew Jonathan Belcher. Susan died at Selsey in 1999 at the age of eighty-six.
Conclusion
Ralph Fitz James Sawyer’s early life was strongly shaped by the wealth, connections and ambitions of his father, Sir James Sawyer, which helped carry him through Warwick School, Oxford and the Inner Temple into a career at the Bar. His later changes of direction—from barrister to schoolmaster and eventually priest— appear dramatic, but there was also considerable continuity. Throughout his adult life he was drawn to public service, whether through the Red Cross, local government, education, the League of Nations Union or the Church. His eventual career as a parish priest can therefore be seen not as a rejection of his previous life, but as the culmination of interests that had developed over many years.
References
[1] Birmingham Daily Post, 19 January 1881, p.8-Births.
[2] Leamington Spa Courier, 14 June 1890, p.7.
[3] Dictionary of National Biography, pp.852-53.
[4] Birmingham Mail, 17 October 1885, p.1; Birmingham Daily Post, 6 December 1890, p.1.
[5] Birmingham Daily Post, 20 November 1885, p.4.
[6] Morning Advertiser, 31 July 1889, p.2.
[7] Leamington Spa Courier, 30 June 1894, p.4; Leamington Spa Courier, 14 September 1895, p.5; Leamington Spa Courier, 9 May 1896, p.4.
[8] Leamington Spa Courier, 1 August 1891, p.7
[9] Leamington, Warwick, Kenilworth & District Daily Circular, 5 April 1898, p.3; Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, 30 July 1898, p.5.
[10] Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald, 3 September 1898, p.7.
[11] Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, 22 October 1898, p. 5.
[12] Leamington, Warwick, Kenilworth & District Daily Circular, 6 January 1899, p.2; Warwick and Warwickshire, 5 August 1899, p.6.
[13] Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, 20 October 1900, p.6
[14] Leamington Spa Courier, 25 December 1908, p.8.
[15] Leamington Spa Courier, 1 April 1938, p.3.
[16] Oxford Times, 29 June 1901, p.12.
[17] Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, 20 November 1903, p.8.
[18] Birmingham Mail, 15 September 1909, p.4.
[19] Wolverton Express, 28 August 1914, p.2; North Bucks Times and County Observer, 29 August 1914, p.5.
[20] Birmingham Mail, 7 October 1908, p.6; 25 September 1913, p.2.
[21] Leamington Spa Courier, 25 April 1902, p.9; Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 23 July 1904, p.10.
[22] Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, 22 July 1904, p.3.
[23] Leamington Spa Courier, 13 July 1906, p.5.
[24] Kenilworth Advertiser, 18 September 1909, p.7.
[25] Morning Post, 19 October 1911, p.10.
[26] Oxfordshire Weekly News, 20 December 1911 p.2; The Queen, 9 December 1911, p.41; Globe, 9 December 1911, p.4; Evening Despatch, 11 December 1911 p.2.
[27] Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, 30 December 1911, p.6.
[28] Stratford-upon Avon Herald, 19 January 1912, p.8.
[29] Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, 22 February 1913, p.8; Baptism register of St Augustine’s, Edgbaston.
[30] Kenilworth Advertiser, 14 January 1911, p.6; Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, 15 April 1911, p.8.
[31] Stratford-upon Avon Herald, 3 November 1911, p.2; Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, 5 October 1912, p.7.
[32] Birmingham Daily Post, 2 June 1915, p.3.
[33] Coventry Herald, 22 October 1915, p.9; Coventry Evening Telegraph, 6 January 1916, p.2.
[34] Who’s Who in Shropshire, 1934.
[35] Birmingham Mail, 28 March 1914, p.2.
[36] Death certificate of Sir James Sawyer.
[37] The will of Sir James Sawyer, dated 14 December 1889, proved at Birmingham on 14 June 1919.
[38] Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, 27 September 1919, p.3.
[39] Who’s Who in Shropshire, 1934.
[40] Birmingham Daily Post, 24 February 1953, p.5; Newark Herald, 1 February 1919, p.5.
[41] Kent & Sussex Courier, 22 April 1955, p.10.
[42] Who’s Who in Shropshire, 1934.
[43] Crewe Chronicle, 19 November 1927, p.4; Who’s Who in Shropshire, 1934.
[44] Leamington Spa Courier, 22 September 1905, p.5; Leamington Spa Courier, 16 October 1908, p.7; Leamington Spa Courier, 1 April 1910, p.8; Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, 25 March 1911, p.4; Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, 29 March 1913, p.7.
[45] Wellington Journal, 30 September 1933, p.8.
[46] Wellington Journal, 30 September 1933, p.8.
[47] Lichfield Mercury, 5 October 1934, p.6.
[48] The will of Dame Adelaide Mary Sawyer, dated 7 October 1919, proved at Lewes on 8 October 1934.
[49] Coventry Evening Telegraph, 26 August 1935, p.5.
[50] Shrewsbury Chronicle, 20 March 1936, p.14.
[51] Evening Despatch, 22 April 1938, p.11.
[52] Western Mail, 30 November 1935, p.7; 11 December 1937, p.5.
[53] Evening Despatch, 22 April 1938, p.11.
[54] Somerset Standard, 4 August 1939, p.6; Western Gazette, 14 March 1941, p.5; Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser, 27 March 1943, p.6.
[55] Bury Free Press, 15 November 1941, p.8; Western Gazette, 13 March 1942, p.2; Western Gazette, 3 November 1944, p.6.
[56] Will of Charles Eastment, dated January 1939, proved at Winchester on 13 April 1951; will of Samuel Purchase, dated 2 August 1942, proved at Winchester on 31 December 1953; will of Albert Marsh, dated 4 December 1944, proved at Winchester on 26 November 1962.
[57] Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, 19 December 1931, p.8.
[58] Dictionary of National Biography, pp.852-53.
[59] Sussex Agricultural Express, 11 April 1941, p.8
[60] National Probate Calendar.
[61] Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser, 18 July 1941, p. 4.
[62] Western Morning News, 11 February 1942, p.3
[63] Liverpool Daily Post, 14 November 1952, p.5
[64] Staffordshire Advertiser, 9 November 1946, p.5.
[65] Birmingham Daily Post, 16 July 1951, p.4.
[66] Death certificate of Ralph Fitz James Sawyer.
[67] The will of Ralph Fitz James Sawyer, dated 31 August 1937, proved at Birmingham on 5 February 1953.
[68] The will of Winifred Mayzod Sawyer, dated 28 November 1957, proved at Winchester on 4 June 1958.
