The Lord Chalmers

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Stathern Church possesses a very large bible which used to rest

on the lectern but is now often removed. Inside the front cover

is an inscription which reads “This bible was presented to the

Parish Church of Stathern by The Lord Chalmers GCB, former

Master of the House of S. Peter in the University of Cambridge,

the Patron of the Benefice, AD1932 “

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Few people know that Lord Robert Chalmers (The Right

Honourable Baron Chalmers of Northiam) lived at Stathern

from about 1931 untill 1934.

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He was born in 1858, educated at Oriel College Oxford, and joined

the Treasury rising to become Permanent Secretary, effectively

head of the Civil Service. In 1913 he was appointed Governor

of Ceylon for two years, after which he had senior posts in Ireland

and again as Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, grappling with the finance of the war years. He was created a peer in 1919. His wife died in 1923, and from 1924 to 1931 he was Master of Peterhouse (Peterhouse being the Patron of Stathern Church).

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His two sons tragically both died in 1915 within a month of each other as army officers in the First World War, so there was no heir to the barony, which is now extinct. It was immediately after retiring from Peterhouse that he lived in Stathern, probably at the rectory, and Peterhouse would have offered him the opportunity to reside here. We have no recorded details of his stay other than the bible reference previously mentioned. In 1935 Lord Chalmers remarried and went to live in Oxford, where he died in 1938 aged 80. During his life he had heaps of honours bestowed on him and he was an expert in the Pali language of Buddhism and published translations of Pali literature.

 

Clearly, he was an exceptionally talented man and it is unfortunate that he left no mark on Stathern of his residence here, apart from the bible.

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                                                                                                                                                    R K Hawkins