Portal:University of Oxford/Selected biography/78

Hensley Henson (1863–1947) was a controversial Anglican priest and scholar, who was Bishop of Hereford (1918–20) and of Durham (1920–39). The son of a zealous member of the Plymouth Brethren, Henson was not allowed to go to school until he was fourteen, and was largely self-educated. He gained a first-class degree from the University of Oxford and was elected as a Fellow of All Souls. After his ordination, he served in the East End of London and in the high-profile post of vicar of St Margaret's, Westminster. While there, and as Dean of Durham (1913–18), he wrote prolifically and sometimes controversially. Anglo-Catholics took exception to his liberal theological views and tried to block his appointment as Bishop of Hereford. In 1920, Henson returned to Durham as its bishop, an area badly affected by an economic depression. Henson was opposed to strikes, trade unions and socialism, and for a time his views made him unpopular in the diocese. He campaigned against efforts to introduce prohibition, exploitation of foreign workers by British companies, and fascist and Nazi aggression, and supported divorce law reform, a controversial revision of the Book of Common Prayer and ecumenism.