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Rev R H ARNOLD
Robert Horace Arnold was born in Alcester, Warwickshire, in April 1922. After being educated at Alcester Grammar School, he went to Durham University on a scholarship. From 1941 to 1942, he was college organist, and then joined the Army and served in the ranks until 1945. He returned to Durham and was President of the Union Society for the Michaelmas term and Secretary of the Junior Common Room. He took his degree in 1947, gaining an Honours in History. He then trained at Cuddesdon Theological College in 1948. where he was an organ scholar. He was made a deacon in 1949 as a curate in the Parish of Basingstoke and then a priest in 1950.
In April 1951, Rev Arnold married a member of the All Saints' congregation, Pamela Mary Sloan, daughter of the late Major Frank Alan Sloan, MC. Major Sloan was a former secretary of the Army Sports Association. (Records show Major Sloan being a resident of The Venture Restaurant on Bypass Road, Basingstoke, at the time of his death in January 1951.)
It was not until August 1951 that Rev Chute (the Parish Vicar) announced that Rev Arnold was to be given general oversight of All Saints' and its district. By March 1952, he was being referred to as the Priest-in-Charge.
Rev Arnold's forthcoming departure from Basingstoke parish was announced in October 1954. The Vicar said that for the time being, the gap on the staff would remain unfilled. Rev J L Gamble (a retired priest living in the parish) had agreed to help out on Sundays for the immediate future.
Rev Arnold was instituted as Rector of Hook Norton near Banbury in February 1955, where he served for 5 years. He left Hook Norton in June 1959 for a parish in London and to become a Chaplain to St Bartholomew's Hospital.
Photograph of Rev Arnold on his 1954 appointment to Hook Norton
No further details of Rev Arnold's life until his death in August 1988 have been discovered, save for a memorial plate on a bench in the grounds of St Bartholomew's Hospital which reads:
"In Memory of
Reverend Robert H. Arnold B.A., 1922 - 1988
Vicar and Hospitaller 1963 - 1986"
["Hospitaller" is likely an honorary title, as The Times of 2nd September 2019, reported that the role was only being revived that year as a Hospital post after being abolished in the late 17th century. ]
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