Hugh Chapman

The Rev Hugh Boswell Chapman (5 November 1853 – 1 April 1933) was a British Liberal politician and Anglican priest. He was a Progressive member of the London County Council from 1889 to 1892.

Early life Chapman was born in London in 1853, the son of Henry Chapman and his wife Priscilla (née Wakefield). Gen Sir Edward Chapman (1840-1926) and Sir Arthur Wakefield Chapman (1849-1926) were older brothers. He was the grandson of the philanthropist and statistician Edward Wakefield and great-grandson of the Quaker philanthropist Priscilla Wakefield.

He was educated at Tonbridge School and Keble College, Oxford (BA, 1875).

Clerical career He was ordained deacon in 1878 and priest in 1881. During his time at Lorrimore Square he was Chaplain to the Forces in Egypt during the Anglo-Egyptian War of 1882. He was an active supporter of Father Damien's leper hospital in Hawaii. He established a "Hugh Boswell" Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at St Luke's; the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Edward Talbot was initiated as a member in 1901. St Luke's had a notable reputation under Chapman: Princess Mary, the Duchess of Teck (the mother of Queen Mary) was a regular visitor, and he was responsible for decorations being installed by John Ruskin's Century Guild of Artists, Herbert Horne, Frederic Shields, Selwyn Image, and Edward Burne-Jones. (The church was bombed in 1941, and rebuilt.) Notable weddings included that of Consuelo, Duchess of Marlborough and Lt Col Jacques Balsan in 1921 and Edith Stuyvesant Vanderbilt and Senator Peter Goelet Gerry in 1925. A condition of such 'benedictory' services was that there be no publicity. Nevertheless, in 1926 Chapman refused to marry Lord Sholto Douglas and Mrs Mendelssohn Pickles, on the basis they were the guilty parties in their respective divorces. Chapman's successor as Chaplain, the Rev Cyril Cresswell, immediately brought an end to the marriage of divorced persons in the Chapel.

London County Council Chapman was elected to the newly-formed London County Council for Camberwell North (in which St Luke's was situated) in 1889 as a Progressive.