General information

▶Date of birth:  28 February 1886        Place of birth: Cheltenham

▶Father:   Howard James Woolnough    Mother: Fanny Kate Hedge

▶Spouse(s): -     Date(s) of marriage:       Place(s) of marriage:

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Anglican); Administrator

▶Lifestory: (Howard) Frank Woolnough was born in Cheltenham in 1886, and his first parochial role was as Curate of St Paul’s Church. He was the eldest son of Cheltenham confectioner Howard James Woolnough, and his wife Fanny Kate (née Hedge). After he left school Woolnough was employed by Messrs. H. G. Norton and Co., ironmongers, and “became one of a group of young men whom the late Rev. T. H. Cave-Moyle, vicar of St Paul’s, Cheltenham, prepared for holy orders”. He attended Christ’s College, Cambridge,  BA 1923, MA 1926. After completing his undergraduate studies, he went to Ridley Hall theological college, Cambridge.

Woolnough was ordained Deacon in 1919, and Priest (both Gloucester) in 1921. In 1919 he was licensed as Assistant Curate of St Paul’s, in his hometown of Cheltenham 1919-26; in 1920 the Cheltenham Looker-on noted that he was standing in for the Vicar, who was on sick leave, and that he had produced the shortest sermon the correspondent had ever heard, “and yet I knew then, that the young assistant Priest, with the austere face and the dearth of words was the worker [who] … is the life centre of the Parish. And although good sermons are scarce, good workers are still more scarce.” When he served at St Paul’s, he lodged nearby at St Paul’s Vicarage (now Clarence Villa), in Clarence Square, Pittville. From 1923 he was also appointed Chaplain of Christ’s College, Cambridge.

At this stage of his career he moved from being s parish priest to a more administrative role, serving as General Secretary of Central Advisory Council of Training for the Ministry 1927-34, after which he became a Canon of Manchester Cathedral. Alongside this he was appointed Examining Chaplain to the Bishops of Chelmsford (1927-8), Manchester (from 1929), Bradford (from 1931), and Domestic Chaplain to the Bishop of Manchester (from 1937). He lived by 1943 at 20 Blackfield Lane, Salford, where he remained until his death. In 1957 he was awarded an OBE as a Canon of Manchester and also as Wing Chaplain, Manchester Wing, and Chairman of the Chaplains' Committee of the Air Training Corps.

He died, unmarried, in 1973, at the age of eighty-seven, and his wealth at death was sworn for probate purposes as just over £27,000. Woolnough was the sitter for two photographic portraits now in the National Portrait Gallery.

▶Moved to Pittville from:   (Born)     Moved from Pittville to:

▶Date of death:  21 May 1973      Place of death: Salford, Lancashire

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes:  Cheltenham Looker-on 17 July 1920 Gloucestershire Echo 13 September 1934      ID: 14909

Contributor(s):  John Simpson/Alan Munden