▶Date of birth: 1 December 1853         Place of birth: Cheltenham

▶Father:  William Gardner     Mother: Louisa

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

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Anglican); Author, Composer

▶Lifestory: Cheltonian the Revd. George Lawrence Harter Gardner was a clergyman who published on the economics of Uruguay, wrote anthems, and for twenty-seven years served as Vicar of All Saints’ Church in Cheltenham. He was born in Cheltenham in 1853, the eldest child and only son of William Gardner, of Prestwich Lodge, Cheltenham, and his wife Louisa. In 1851, aged four months, he lived with his parents in the house of his mother’s parents in Cheltenham.

Gardner was educated at Cheltenham College until 1868, and then matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1869, BA 1873, MA 1871, B.Mus (Oxford) 1875; while still studying, he published The financial position of Uruguay, with official documents in 1874. He took holy orders and was ordained Deacon in 1875, and Priest (both Lincoln) in 1876.

From 1875 until 1884 he was licensed as a Curate of St Mary, Nottingham (where for his last year he was effectively priest-in-charge), after which he moved to Cheltenham, in 1884 taking the post of Curate of All Saints; this was at the request of the Vicar, the Revd. Corbett Moore, who had been told by his doctor to take a long break, and who wished to find someone capable of managing the parish in his absence. As it happened, Gardner was asked to take over as Vicar of All Saints’ in 1886, retaining the office 1911; at first All Saints’ Vicarage was a house of All Saints’ Road, but between 1904 and 1909 he moved the Vicarage to his family home, Prestwich Lodge (now Star Court), Pittville Circus Road.

Gardner had received his B.Mus. from Oxford in 1875, and, a gifted composer, frequently arranged music for the church and performed in recitals; he published very anthems and other works, such as Postlude for the organ (1884), Let me your heart be troubled (1886), and (with Percy Rawson Preston) Beauty and the Beast: an operetta (1901). His Human nature: sermons was published by Parker & Co. of Oxford in 1891.

When he first arrived at the church he expressed disquiet about the quality of the organ, and a “truly magnificent instrument” has obtained for the church at a cost of £2,000; in addition, “a new and commodious Mission Room” was built, a boundary wall erected, and through the generosity of his father “a site for the erection of a fitting and becoming School-house and Parish Room had been found in Sherborne Place”.

By this time the Revd. Gardner was known as a strong supporter of the ideals of the Church within the county, ultimately as Vice-Chairman of the Cheltenham Education Committee, a Governor of the Cheltenham General Hospital, and as a firm advocate of the Working Men’s College amongst other organisations, and from 1906 he agreed to serve as a Honorary Canon of Gloucester; he was quite able to speak his mind when so inclined, referring to Stainer’s “Crucifixion” as “this tawdry piece of work … with its pietistic hymns and its weak, sentimental illustration of sacred mysteries”.

He eventually left Cheltenham (“one of the most gifted and devoted souls the religious life of Cheltenham has ever seen”) when he was appointed Chaplain to the Bishop of Birmingham 1911-13, and Honorary Canon of Birmingham 1911-20; in 1911 he lived with his sister and servants at 2 Vicarage road in Handsworth, Birmingham.

Over the war years, between 1913 and 1920, he was Archdeacon of Aston and Chancellor of Birmingham 1913-20; after this he returned to Cheltenham for a while as Archdeacon 1920-24. His Worship & music: suggestions for clergy and choirmasters was published in 1918, and in 1922 became a Fellow of St Michael’s College, an Anglican preparatory school for boys in Tenbury, Worcestershire, in 1922.

Gardner lived latterly at Applegarth, Cheltenham before removing in 1924 for the sake of his health to his sister’s house, The Deanery, in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, where he died, unmarried, in 1925, at the age of seventy-one. His estate at death was valued for probate at just over £39,830.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  (1) Nottingham; (2) Birmingham      Moved from Pittville to: (1) Birmingham; (2) Marlow, Buckinghamshire

▶Date of death:  20 September 1925      Place of death: Applegarth, Cheltenham

▶Date of burial:   24 September 1925      Place of burial:  All Saints’ Church, Cheltenham

▶Notes:  Cheltenham Chronicle 5 July 1890; Falkirk Herald 14 August 1912; Cheltenham Looker-On 6 December 1919      ID: 15174

Contributor(s):  John Simpson/Alan Munden