▶Date of birth:  11 September 1838        Place of birth: Bruntingthorpe, Leicestershire

▶Father: Charles Longhurst      Mother: Sarah Jane Oldacres

▶Spouse(s):  Geraldine Arden    Date(s) of marriage:  29 January 1867     Place(s) of marriage: St George’s, Bloomsbury

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Anglican)

▶Lifestory: William Henry Roberts Longhurst retired to Cheltenham in his seventies; he lived eventually to be one hundred and four. Longhurst was born in Bruntingthorpe, Leicestershire, in 1838, the younger son of the Revd. Charles Longhurst, of Peatling Hall, Lutterworth, Leicestershire, and his wife Sarah Jane (née Oldacres). He attended the Collegiate School in Leicester and Marlborough College, Wiltshire, and matriculated at Pembroke College, Oxford in 1858, BA 1863, MA 1871; he was something of a sportsman and athlete at Pembroke, and in 1861 won the scratch fives with J. E. Swann as well as captaining the College cricket XI.

He took holy orders, and was ordained Deacon in 1865, and Priest (both Salisbury) in 1867. In 1865 he was licensed Curate of Savernake, Wiltshire, and in early 1867 was married to Geraldine, younger daughter of Joseph Arden, barrister, of Rickmansworth Park, Hertfordshire; they had four daughters and a son. The couple moved to Rawmarsh, Yorkshire, where he served as Curate 1867-9. In 1870 he was appointed Curate of Lillington, Warwickshire, before he was appointed Minister of Holy Trinity, Worcester 1871-9, Vicar of Kempsey, Worcestershire 1879-92, and then Vicar of Queenhill with Holdfast, also in Worcestershire, from 1892; he took a special interest in both hospitals and education, chairing several local committees.

In 1894 he was elected a Rural District Councillor at Upton-on-Severn, Worcestershire (this occupied much of his time, and by 1899 he was Chairman and at the same time Chairman of the Worcester dispensary Committee); in 1910 was installed as an Honorary Canon of Worcester Cathedral (and a Canon Emeritus from 1936, aged ninety-seven). It was said that in total he held twenty-six chairmanships in Worcester while he lived there.

He resigned his office at Queenhill in 1915, and between 1914 and 1923 he lived in Pittville, Cheltenham: from 1914-16 at Glenmore Lodge, Wellington Square, 1918-22 at Trouville (now 96 Evesham Road).  He was a friend of the Revd T. H. Cave-Moyles, the Vicar of St Paul’s and lodged in the vicarage (now Clarence Villa) and occasionally officiated.

Longhurst died in 1943 at Budleigh Salterton, Devon, a week before his 105th birthday, at which time he was the oldest clergyman in the Church of England.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  Queenhill, Worcestershire      Moved from Pittville to: Budleigh Salterton, Devon

▶Date of death:  3 September 1943      Place of death: The Pebbles, Budleigh Salterton, Devon

▶Date of burial:   8 September 1943      Place of burial: Kensington and Chelsea, London

▶Notes:        ID: 14619

Contributor(s):  John Simpson/Alan Munden