The Revd. James Canon Seymour Denis Mansel, K.C.V.O., M.A.

James Mansel was born in Leamington on 18 June 1907 and educated at Brighton College and Exeter College, Oxford, where he read French. He spent more than thirty years as a schoolmaster, first at Dulwich College from 1934-9 and then at Winchester from 1939-65. In 1941, pressed by his headmaster, Mansel took holy orders and was successively assistant chaplain, chaplain and, from 1955-62, housemaster at Winchester. He loved both the college and the city; he was not a gifted teacher, but efficient, and, as house-master, encouraged the boys to pursue their own interests rather than spend their time on the playing fields. He himself looked outwards and was involved in civic affairs as an Independent member of Winchester City Council from 1950-6 and a magistrate from 1964, and was prominent in the Friends organization at the Cathedral. A member of the Auxiliary Fire Service during the war, he fought fires in Southampton during the blitz and firewatched at Winchester Cathedral. In 1965 he abandoned teaching on being offered the posts of Sub-Dean of H.M. Chapels Royal, Deputy Clerk of the Closet and Sub-Almoner and Domestic Chaplain to the Queen on the recommendation of Bishop Roger Wilson of Chichester, Clerk of the Closet. Mansel was, in fact, the first full-time Chaplain to the Queen to be appointed, and one of his tasks was to unite the numerous part-time royal chaplains into a cohesive body, while ministering to the pastoral needs of the royal family and household in London. In this post he was a conspicuous success demanding, as it did, qualities of character and personality rather than gifts of oratory (he was required to preach only once a year). The Queen personally appointed him K.C.V.O. on his retirement in 1979, a fitting reward for his loyalty and discretion. He was a Canon and Prebendary of Chichester Cathedral from 1971-81 and became Canon Emeritus in 1981. His continued membership of the bench, when he moved from Winchester to Inner London, was a source of great gratification to him as few priests are to be found among the Justices of the Peace. A Londoner by adoption and affection, Mansel worked as an assistant priest at St Margaret's, Westminster, after retirement from his chaplaincy, and in 1988 was appointed an honorary priest vicar at Westminster Abbey, an office he held until his death on 22 September 1995.