Francis Chavasse


Francis Chavasse
Bishop of Liverpool
DioceseLiverpool
In office1900–1923
PredecessorJ. C. Ryle
SuccessorAlbert David
Other post(s)Principal, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford (1889–1900)
Orders
Ordination1870 (priest)
Consecration1900
by William Maclagan
Personal details
Born(1846-09-27)27 September 1846
Sutton Coldfield, England, UK
Died11 March 1928(1928-03-11) (aged 81)
Oxford, England, UK
BuriedLiverpool Cathedral
NationalityBritish
DenominationAnglican
SpouseEdith Maude
Children4 sons, 3 daughters
(incl. Christopher Chavasse, Noel Godfrey Chavasse)
Alma materCorpus Christi College, Oxford

Francis James Chavasse (27 September 1846 – 11 March 1928) was an Anglican priest and bishop and father of Captain Noel Chavasse. After serving in parishes in Preston, London, and Oxford, for eleven years from 1889 he was principal of the evangelical theological college Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. In 1900 he was appointed as the second Bishop of Liverpool and held the see from 1900 to 1923, during which time he played a large part in the commissioning and the early phases of construction of Liverpool Cathedral.

A lifelong member of the evangelical wing of the Church of England, Chavasse strove to unite all strands of Anglicanism and was widely accepted by members of the high-church tradition within his diocese.

After retiring as Bishop of Liverpool in 1923, Chavasse returned to Oxford, where he was the guiding spirit of the establishment of a new academic institution admitting undergraduates of modest means. This opened in 1929, a year after his death, as St Peter's Hall, and was later given full collegiate status as St Peter's College.