| Description | Research and other materials acquired and collected by Rev Canon Howard for a proposed biography of Christopher B. R. Sargent (1906-1943), Assistant Bishop in Fukien, China 1938-1940 and Bishop 1940-1943. It appears that Howard did not publish a biography and there is no text or drafts of a manuscript in this collection.
The materials include copies of circular letters of Sargent, which he wrote as Assistant Bishop and then Bishop in Fukien, 1938-1941; letters from friends and relatives of Sargent to Howard which both pre date and post date Sargent's death; a few letters from Sargent to Howard himself, 1940-1941; papers relating to the Bishop Christopher Sargent Memorial Fund, the appeal for which Howard was involved in (to provide bursaries for candidates studying for the ministry in the Fukien Diocese); and various printed materials and photographs of and relating to Sargent. |
| Administrative History | Rev Robert Wilmot Howard (1887-1960) was educated at Weymouth College, Trinity College, Cambridge and Ridley Hall, Cambridge. He was ordained in 1912 and became Tutor to St Aidan's Theological College, Birkenhead, 1912-1915 and was later chaplain and Vice-Principal there. During the First World War, he served as chaplain to the British Expeditionary Forces, 1916-1919. From 1920-1923, he was Home Education Secretary of the CMS, then becoming Assistant Master at Eton College, 1924-1928 and Headmaster of Liverpool College, 1928-1945. He was appointed Canon Diocesan of Liverpool Cathedral in 1943 and then Canon Emeritus from 1945. He was Rector of St Peter-le-Bailey, and Master of St Peter's Hall, Oxford, 1945-1955. He died in 1960. His publications included A Merry Mountaineer: the story of Clifford Harris of Persia, 1931; Talks in Preparation for Confirmation, 1941; Should Women be Priests?, 1949; and author and editor of the CMS Handbook, Workers Together, 1924.
Reference: Who was who, 1951-1960. |
| Custodial History | Presented to the CMS by Mrs N. Howard, Tetbury, Gloucestershire July 1961; transferred on permanent loan to the Special Collections Department by the CMS in the 1980s. |