Walter Hussey

John Walter Atherton Hussey (15 May 1909 – 25 July 1985) was an English priest of the Church of England who had a great fondness for the arts, commissioning a number of musical compositions and visual art for the church as well as amassing his own collection.

Biography Walter Hussey, as he was known, was born on 15 May 1909 in Northampton, the younger son of Canon John Rowden Hussey and his wife Lilian. John Hussey was then vicar of St Matthew's Church, Northampton, a living which he had held since the church was built in 1893. As a small boy Walter attended The Knoll, a preparatory school at Woburn Sands, from where he won a foundation scholarship to Marlborough College in 1922. In 1927 he went up to Keble College, Oxford to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics, obtaining his BA in 1930. Before entering Cuddesdon Theological College in July 1931 he spent some time as a schoolmaster at Charleston, a preparatory school in Seaford, Sussex. He then succeeded his father as vicar of St Matthew's, Northampton, a position he held until 1955. In his book, Patron of Art, Hussey wrote "Perhaps my succeeding him may suggest nepotism, but I don't think it was. I was not anxious to go there; it seemed that there was little one could do but let the parish down ... my various authorities advised me that it was right that I should go."

Buoyed by the success of the 1943-4 commissions (which attracted national and international media attention), Hussey continued to commission new works of art. Other musical commissions included The Revival by Edmund Rubbra (1944); Festival Anthem by Lennox Berkeley (1945), Lo, the full, final sacrifice from Gerald Finzi (1946), and works by Christopher Headington, Malcolm Arnold and others. There were commissions of poetry: a Litany and Anthem for St Matthew's Day from W. H. Auden and The Outer Planet from Norman Nicholson. Facing the Moore Madonna across the church is Crucifixion (1946) from Graham Sutherland. The tradition of recitals continued throughout this time, most notably with two concerts by the singer Kirsten Flagstad

When Hussey left Northampton in 1955 to become Dean of Chichester Cathedral he had known George Bell, Bishop of Chichester for many years and knew that they shared the same attitude to art and the Church. Consequently, the work he had begun in St Matthew's continued almost uninterrupted in the cathedral. Among his commissions for Chichester were several works of visual art: the altarpiece "Noli me tangere" (1961) by Graham Sutherland, a tapestry by John Piper, a new pulpit and other metalwork by Geoffrey Clarke, a painting by Cecil Collins, textiles by Ceri Richards, and stained glass by Marc Chagall, Hussey's final commission (1978).

Among numerous works of new music for Chichester, the ones with the highest profile were Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms and the 1975 Chichester Service by William Walton.

Hussey's own collection of art was bequeathed to the City of Chicester and is now housed in Pallant House Gallery.