Cuthbert Thicknesse

The Very Rev Cuthbert Carroll Thicknesse[1] (19 November 1887 – 2 June 1971) was Dean of St Albans[2] from 1936[3] until his retirement in 1955.

Born into an ecclesiastical family of Lancashire landed gentry,[4] the son of Ven. Francis Norman Thicknesse,[5] and educated at Marlborough and Keble College, Oxford, he was ordained in 1913.[6] He was firstly a Curate of St John-at-Hackney.[7] He became a Temporary Chaplain to the Forces in May, 1915. He was sent to Flanders in January, 1917, attached to the Royal Artillery but, 4 months later, was wounded in the knee. He was invalided out in 1917[8] By then, he had married Rhoda Oonah Marjorie Moran Pratt, and the Archbishop of York was able to have him appointed Rector of Bedworth, a post reserved for Chaplains to the Forces.[9]In 1922, he moved to Wigan, and was made an Honorary Chaplain to the King. In 1934, he was recommended for the vacant see at Guildford[10] but was unsuccessful. He became Dean of St Albans two years later. Noted for a ‘volcanic’ temperament, [11] he was a fierce opponent opponent of nuclear weapons,[12] and he refused to hold a service of celebration in St Albans Cathedral at the cessation of the war with Japan in August 1945.[13] He was described in his obituary as “a high church man and convinced Anglican”.[14]