The Sad Story of the Vicar of Stiffkey

By James Parry
The Express
November 5, 2012

http://www.express.co.uk/features/view/356253

The Reverend Harold Davidson, the Rector of Stiffkey, who claimed this picture was a set-up

IN A corner of a country churchyard in north Norfolk lies the grave of Harold Francis Davidson, the last resting place of a man who 80 years ago was at the heart of a case that scandalised the Church of England and caused a press furore. Davidson was a church rector who strayed beyond his brief and was sensationally defrocked in 1932 after a trial that gripped the nation. The potent mix of sex, skulduggery and abuse of authority proved toxic and still resonates today.

Davidson came from a long line of clergymen but his early interests were rather more theatrical. He revelled in amateur dramatics at school and toured for several months in 1895 with a group of likeminded friends, performing as entertainers. But in the autumn of 1903 the young Davidson turned his back on the stage and was ordained as a priest.

Three years later he was posted as rector to the parish of Stiffkey St John and Stiffkey St Mary & Morston, located on a remote stretch of the Norfolk coastline. In the Edwardian era that part of the country was far from being the fashionable rural playground for the chattering classes that it is today. Local society was still deeply feudal with a small-minded establishment holding sway and with firm views on what was and was not appropriate behaviour.

Davidson quickly gained popularity with the villagers, visiting his poorer parishioners and even helping them out with payment of their rent and bills. His generosity overcame the traditional Norfolk suspicion of outsiders and soon he was known affectionately as "Little Jimmy" (he was 5ft 3in tall).

However the local gentry were less welcoming and highly suspicious of the rapport that the diminutive if somewhat eccentric rector had struck up with their tenants.

After service in the First World War Davidson returned to Stiffkey to find his wife allegedly pregnant by another man. Understandably the rector's mind began to look towards other horizons and he was soon spending increasing amounts of time in London although always returning to Stiffkey in time for the Sunday service.

NORFOLK society was rife with speculation over what exactly Davidson was up to in the capital. But he made few bones of the fact that he was engaged in a mission to save what were euphemistically known then as "fallen women" - street prostitutes.

As he busily befriended them in the alleyways of Soho and around Marble Arch, the rector's professed aim was to help the young women take up more virtuous and less dangerous employment.

He spent much of his own money purportedly helping them do so, "rehabilitating" what he later admitted were several hundred such cases, many of them only teenagers. Some of these women were even brought temporarily to Norfolk.

At that time the streets of London were worked by as many as 25,000 prostitutes. Many were former servants or shopworkers forced to sell their bodies as a way of supporting themselves. Having an illegitimate child - even if a result of rape - was enough to be considered an outcast.

Attitudes to these women varied from censorious outrage to philanthropic attempts to help them to improve their lives. This debate featured in TV's Downton Abbey with Lord Grantham horrified to discover that Ethel, a former housemaid who had resorted to prostitution after having a child out of wedlock, was serving his wife and family at the table of Isobel Crawley, who had taken pity on the girl.

Attitudes in Stiffkey to Harold Davidson's activities away from his parish were similarly divided. Upstanding members of the local gentry accused him of dabbling in vice and immorality while many of his parishioners regarded his work in London as an extension of the Christian charity he had shown them back in Norfolk. Local society became riven along class lines.

The growing scandal soon rippled to the shores of Fleet Street, where news of the "Randy Rector of Stiffkey" fuelled a media frenzy. Under pressure to remove Davidson the Bishop of Norwich authorised the Arrows Detective Agency to see what dirt it could rake up on the renegade rector.

Their aim was to prove that Davidson's interest in his "poor, misguided girls" was more than just spiritual and that he had committed acts of gross immorality with them. However only one of the women interviewed could be induced to accuse him of sexual misconduct and only then when she had been plied with alcohol. Once sober she recanted but by then the die had been cast.

Despite a lack of evidence charges of immoral conduct were levelled against Davidson and a date set for a Church trial. With front-page headlines and large crowds gathering at the venue in Westminster, the rector arrived confidently but had been given little opportunity to assemble a little opportunity to assemble a defence and once in the dock was faced with a barrage of what was by modern standards flimsy and circumstantial proof of his guilt.

A letter now known to have been forged was presented along with a photograph - almost certainly set up - showing Davidson with a seminaked girl. The rector was pronounced guilty and a liar under a "wave of opprobrium from the judge. The latter just happened to have been at university with the Bishop of Norwich and was godfather to his daughter.

A few months later Davidson was summoned to Norwich Cathedral and publicly stripped of his holy orders. Told in the sternest tones by the Bishop that he was to be "removed, deposed and degraded", he was left pleading his case in an increasingly hysterical voice as the clerical procession swept past him, Inquisition-style, on their way out. Bereft and penniless, Davidson did what he did best - he took to the stage again. He was soon to be found at Blackpool, exhibiting himself in a barrel and proclaiming his innocence.

One day in July 1937, in midsermon, he accidentally trod on the tail of a lion called Freddie which grabbed him by the neck and shook him violently. At first the audience thought this was part of the act but in fact Davidson was fatally injured and died a few days later.

HE LATER moved to Skegness where he preached from inside a cage of lions. One day in July 1937, in midsermon, he accidentally trod on the tail of a lion called Freddie which grabbed him by the neck and shook him violently. At first the audience thought this was part of the act but in fact Davidson was fatally injured and died a few days later.

Whether or not Davidson was guilty of any impropriety with the women he claimed to be helping will probably never be known. More likely is that the "prostitutes' padre" was merely the victim of prejudice and hypocrisy, guilty of nothing more than naivety. Perhaps he simply fell foul of the con-likely is that the "prostitutes' padre" was merely the victim of prejudice and hypocrisy, guilty of nothing more than naivety. Perhaps he simply fell foul of the conservative establishment.

Meanwhile there has been no review by the Church of his case and consequently no opportunity for Davidson's name to be cleared. His epitaph read poignantly: "He was loved by the villagers, who recognised his humanity and forgave him his transgressions. May he rest in peace."