Elsie Chamberlain

Elsie Dorothea Chamberlain (3 March 1910 – 10 April 1991) was a British Congregational Church minister and radio broadcaster. She was the first woman minister in the RAF and a leader of the Congregational Federation of churches that formed in 1972.

Life Chamberlain was born in Islington in 1910. Her father had been brought up Church Of England but, following her mother's lead, the family joined a Congregational church - Islington Chapel on the corner of Upper Street and Church Street (now Gaskin Street). She was sent to the Channing School for Girls which was Unitarian in foundation. On leaving school, although she qualified to teach the violin, she trained and began work as a dress designer. In the early 1930s her minister, Robert Shepherd, encouraged her to consider the call to ministry and she joined a group that he led learning Hebrew. Still in London, she went on to King's College, London which had a strong Anglican tradition. Just before the start of the war Chamberlain went to work with Reverend Muriel Paulden in Toxteth in Liverpool. In those first few months the Sunday Schools were pretty empty as the local children were evacuated. Chamberlain was involved in visiting the children in their new homes but many soon returned to Toxteth. In 1941 she was appointed to her own church, Christ Church New Southgate & Friern Barnet which led to an invitation in 1944 to speak at Hyde Park Corner.

In 1946 she became the first woman chaplain in the Royal Air Force. This was due to the intercession of Margaret Wedgwood Benn (Viscountess Stansgate) and the appointment of a woman annoyed the Archbishop of Canterbury. Chamberlain had to leave the position when she started to suffer from arthritis. The following year there was great media interest when she married. Her husband had been given a parish and Chamberlain became a "vicar's wife". The position was due to Viscountess Stansgate who, through her husband, had enlisted the help of the Lord Chancellor to appoint Garrington to a parish in his gift. This overcame objections from the Bishop of London that a vicar's wife could not have split loyalties. By the November she had her own church loyalties as part-time minister in Richmond. The leaders were Viscountess Stansgate, Reginald Cleaves, John Wilcox and Chamberlain. who was another important leader in the Congregational Federation.