Charles Frederick D'Arcy

Charles Frederick D'Arcy (2 January 1859 – 1 February 1938) was a Church of Ireland bishop. He was the Bishop of Clogher from 1903 to 1907 when he was translated to become Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin before then becoming the Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore. He was then briefly the Archbishop of Dublin and finally, from 1920 until his death, Archbishop of Armagh. He was also a theologian, author and botanist.

Early life Born in Dublin in 1859, D'Arcy was the son of John Charles D'Arcy of Mount Tallant, County Dublin, and of Henrietta Anna, a daughter of Thomas Brierly of Rehoboth House, Dublin. He was a grandson of John D'Arcy of Hydepark, County Westmeath, and a descendant of The 1st Baron Darcy de Knayth, one of the knights who had fought at the Battle of Crecy (1346).

Charles D'Arcy was educated at The High School, Dublin, and Trinity College, Dublin, where he was elected a Scholar in mathematics and won a gold medal in Moral philosophy. He graduated BA in 1882, with a first-class Divinity Testimonium, and MA in 1892. He was later awarded the degrees of Bachelor of Divinity, 1898, and Doctor of Divinity, 1900.

In 1907 he became a member of the Royal Irish Academy and was a Select Preacher at the University of Cambridge (1907–1908 and 1925), Hulsean Preacher at Cambridge (1929 to 1930) as well as a Select Preacher at the University of Oxford (1908–1910), the University of Glasgow (1912) the University of Durham (1923). Less than a year later, in June 1920, he was elected as Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, again succeeding Crozier.

He was opposed to Irish Home Rule and in 1912 signed the Ulster Covenant. In 1921 he was appointed a member of the Senate of Southern Ireland, which was abolished with the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, but did not attend.

He was a lifelong friend of the 1st Viscount Craigavon, the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, and a member of the Athenaeum Club, London, and the University Club, Dublin.

In 1934 he published his autobiography, The Adventures of a Bishop: a Phase in Irish Life, and in June 1937 announced that he intended to retire because of poor health. However, in the event, he continued as archbishop until he died on 1 February 1938.

Marriage and family His daughter, Henrietta Grace Mulholland (née D'Arcy), Lady Dunleath of Ballywalter, from The Book of Fair Women, by E. O. Hoppé, 1922 In 1889, D'Arcy married Harriet Le Byrtt Lewis, daughter of Richard Lewis of Comrie, County Down, and they had one son and three daughters. In May 1920, D'Arcy gave his son a special licence to marry Noël Patricia Wakefield. The Adventures of a Bishop: a Phase in Irish Life (Hodder and Stoughton, 1934, autobiography) God and the struggle for existence (Association Press, 1996)