▶Date of birth:  27 August 1871        Place of birth: Taunton, Somerset

▶Father:  Thomas Theodore Hucklebridge Sydenham     Mother: Elizabeth Jane Taylor

▶Spouse(s):  Mary Kathleen Baldock    Date(s) of marriage:  26 April 1910     Place(s) of marriage: Sherborne, Dorset

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Anglican)

▶Lifestory: Herbert Cecil Sydenham enjoyed a succession of different cleric posts around England before retiring to Cheltenham from the 1930s. He was born in Taunton in 1871, the fourth son of Thomas Sydenham, an engineer and plumber, of Bristol, and his wife Elizabeth. His father died when he was eight, and he and his brothers and sisters were brought up by his mother at Westbury-on-Trym, Gloucestershire. By 1891 he was living at the family home and working as an apprentice to an iron merchant.

However, he must have had in mind a clerical career, as he was admitted to Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1896, BA 1899, MA 1903. He received his theological training at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford from 1899, and was ordained Deacon in 1900, and Priest (both Liverpool) in 1901. He was licensed Curate of St Saviour’s, Everton 1900-3, and then became Curate-in-Charge of the Mission District of St Luke’s, Far Moor, Orrell, partly in the parish of St John’s, Pemberton and partly in Upholland, Lancashire.

After his time in Lancashire, he moved as Curate to Sherborne, Dorset 1906-8, and then as Curate of St John the Evangelist, Bromley, Kent 1909-10. In 1910 he married Mary Kathleen, daughter of Colonel John Baldock, of Sherborne, and was appointed Curate-in-Charge of St Peter’s, Great Yarmouth 1910-12. In 1912 he was presented to the living of St John the Baptist, Yeovil as Vicar 1912-23, subsequently accepting the vicarage of Winscombe, Somerset in 1923; he resigned the office in 1929 as a result of ill-health.

In 1937 he lived during his retirement at 7 Pittville Lawn (now 47 Pittville Lawn) in Cheltenham. In 1938 his wife died suddenly, and he moved in that year to 3 Pittville Crescent, where he resided with his elder brother Charles, a retired gold assayer, officiating occasionally at weddings back in Yeovil. He sold the house in Pittville Crescent in 1950, and in 1952 Crockford records him living at 8 Wellington Square, Pittville.

Sydenham died two years later at Weston-super-Mare, at the age of eighty-two, when he resided at Rockland Villa, Marson Road, Clevedon, Somerset. His effects at death were sworn at just over £2,500.

▶Moved to Pittville from: (uncertain)       Moved from Pittville to: Clevedon, Somerset

▶Date of death:  4 June 1954      Place of death: Weston-super-Mare, Somerset

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes:   Not in ACAD Alumni     ID: 11869

Contributor(s):  John Simpson/Alan Munden