JOHN FRANCIS BLOXAM

 

JOHN FRANCIS BLOXAM,
AN UNDERGRADUATE OF STRANGE BEAUTY
BY
BARRY VAN-ASTEN

 

‘In vain I endeavoured to drown the yearnings of my heart with the ordinary pleasures and vices that usually attract the young. I had to choose a profession. I became a priest. The whole aesthetic tendency of my soul was intensely attracted by the wonderful mysteries of Christianity, the artistic beauty of our services. Ever since my ordination I have been striving to cheat myself into the belief that peace had come at last – at last my yearning was satisfied: but all in vain.’

 

[The Priest and the Acolyte. The Chameleon. December 1894. p. 41]

 

 

John Francis Bloxam (1873-1928) is known mostly for his story ‘The Priest and the Acolyte’ which appeared in the only published magazine under his editorship, The Chameleon in November 1894 and for the part that story played in the trial of Oscar Wilde. Little is known about his family background or about the heroism which earned him the Military Cross and so to honour this minor yet significant poet I have brought into the light some pieces of the Bloxam puzzle, a puzzle which is fascinating and includes several notable family members – His great grandfather was the surgeon and apothecary, Richard Bloxam (1741-1825) who married Susannah Rouse (1737-1804) in Westminster on 10^th November 1763 (1); his grandfather, also a surgeon and apothecary, was Robert Bloxam (born 5^th September 1771 at Newport, Isle of Wight and dying 16^th May 1859) who married Ann Charlton (1775-1868) daughter of John S. Charlton, at St. George’s, Hanover Square on 20^th October 1800 and they had 14 children; John’s great Uncle was Rev. Richard Rouse Bloxam (1765-1840), a Master of Rugby School (2) and an Uncle was James Mackenzie Bloxam (1813-1857) who was a barrister, clockmaker and member of the Royal Astronomical Society (3); another Uncle was John Charlton Bloxam (1806-1876), M.R.C.S., F.M.S. who was a surgeon and meteorologist (4) and then there was Uncle Robert William Bloxam (1808-1868) F.R.C.S., who was another notable surgeon (5). John also belonged to a fine list of First Cousins once removed: Rev. Richard Rowland Henry Kent Bloxam (1797-1877), mycologist and chaplain in the Royal Navy (6); Rev. Thomas Lawrence Bloxam (1798-1880) (7), Rev. Andrew Bloxam (1801-1878) the naturalist and botanist (8), Matthew Holbeche Bloxam (1805-1888), the antiquarian and amateur archaeologist (9) and Rev. John Rouse Bloxam (1807-1891) the antiquarian and historian of Magdalen College, Oxford and a friend of both John Henry Newman (1801-1890) and Augustus Pugin (1812-1852) (10).

John was the seventh and youngest child born to Edward and Anne Bloxam at 1, Grosvenor Hill, in Wimbledon, Surrey, on Wednesday 17^th December 1873 (he was christened in Wimbledon on 18^th January 1874). His father, Edward Bloxam, born 31^st January 1815 at Newport, Isle of Wight, Hampshire was chief clerk to Vice Chancellor James Bacon (1798-1895) in the Court of Chancery. Edward, of Cambridge Terrace, son of Robert Bloxam of Newport, married Anne Jane Mills, youngest daughter of Richard Mills, of the Moat, Eltham, on 21^st August 1856 at Eltham; they were married by the Rector of Hartley Maudit, Hampshire, Reverend John Taylor Plummer (11). Edward and Anne had the following children: (a) Lucy Anne Bloxam, born 27^th October 1857 (she died unmarried in a London nursing home on 25^th January 1916). (b) George Edward Bloxam, born 10^th April 1859 at 20, Gloucester Terrace, Hyde Park Gardens, London, became a Medical Practitioner and he died on 26^th February 1919 aged 59  (12), (c) Margaret Sophia Bloxam, born 9^th May 1860 at 20, Gloucester Terrace, (she died unmarried at Hazelbury House, Painswick, on 5^th November 1949; (d) Mary Anne Bloxam, born 18^th February 1863 at 20, Gloucester Terrace, she died unmarried in Stroud, Gloucestershire in 1957, aged 94; (e) Ellen Sarah Bloxam, born 1865, she died unmarried aged 61 on 4^th February 1926; (f) William Richard Bloxam, born 4^th June 1869 at 20, Gloucester Terrace, a solicitor of Stroud, Gloucestershire; he married Mabel Frances Farran, only daughter of Francis Henry Farran of Belcamp, Wimbledon, on 12^th January 1899 at St. Mary’s, Wimbledon (the bride’s brother Rev. G. E. Farran officiated, assisted by Rev. J. K. Wilson M.A. and Rev. J. F. Bloxam, brother of the bridegroom). He died aged 88 on 6^th February 1958 (13) and finally (g) John Francis Bloxam born 17^th December 1873 at Wimbledon Hill.

Young John was educated at Winchester College like his brothers before him, George in 1872 and William in 1883; John entered at the ‘Cloister Time’ (summer term) of 1887. At Winchester, John became friends with the older, Lord Alfred Douglas (1870-1945) who had entered Winchester during the ‘Short Half’ (autumn term) of 1884; it is likely that they drew to one another over a love of poetry, a liking for ritual and ceremony (both felt drawn to Catholicism) and both had illicit desires – it is noted that John Bloxam had a ‘strange beauty’ as Wilde described him and would have been desirable to the ‘three-years older’ Douglas. Both left Winchester to go up to Oxford, Douglas to Magdalen College in 1889 and Bloxam to Exeter College two years later in 1891.

On 28^th June 1893, at Lower Weston, near Bath, John’s father, Edward died aged 78; he died at the residence of his son, George Edward Bloxam. Edward, late of 1, Grosvenor Hill, Wimbledon, left £26,000 in his will which was proved on 27^th July. His widow Anne Jane Bloxam, Thomas Wilgress Mills, and Francis Edward Turner Bloxam, the nephew, the executors, the value of the personal estate amounting over £26,000. The testator bequeaths twenty-three shares in the Civil Service Supply Association, £400, and all his household furniture and effects to his wife; £10 to each of his godchildren; and £20 to servant. The residue of his real and personal estate he leaves, upon trust, for his wife, for life. At her death he gives £2000 each to his daughters Lucy Anne, Margaret Sophia, Mary Ann, and Ellen Sarah; £1000 each to his sons George Edward, William Richard, and John Francis; and the ultimate residue to all his children, the share of each of his daughters to be double the share of his sons.’ (The will is dated September 3^rd 1891) (14)

A decade prior to Bloxam matriculating at Exeter College, Oxford, it had also been home to two notable poet-priests: Rev. Edwin Emmanuel Bradford (1860-1944) who matriculated in October 1881 and graduated in 1884, and Rev. Samuel Elsworth Cottam (1863-1943) who matriculated in June 1881 and graduated in 1885; the two clerics were lifelong friends and both wrote verse extolling the friendships and ideals of Greek love.

While still an undergraduate John’s poem, ‘A Dream of Love’ was published in The Artist and Journal of Home Culture (volume XV, number 175, July 1894, p. 233) which was edited by Charles Philip Castle Kains Jackson (1857-1933) until 1894 when his essay ‘The New Chivalry’ prompted a change of editorship. Bloxam, who published the poem under his pseudonym, ‘Bertram Lawrence’, and Kains Jackson became friends.

 

A DREAM OF LOVE
 
I have decked my couch with violets fair,
And lilies with gold-plumed eyes;
The air blows warm with the soft perfume
Of the lilacs and roses and stiff-sprayed broom
In my heart’s own paradise.
 
Ah! my love has come and her deep blue eyes
Are hazy with love-born mists,
Her limbs are bathed in the pale moonlight,
Her soft pink limbs ‘neath the stars are white,
In her curls sweet blooms she twists.
 
I have hedged my couch with the poppies pale,
That put to flight sad regret,
Here wreathed in the arms of my love I dream,
While the lilacs and roses with soft smiles beam,
The poppies whisper, “Forget.”

Bertram Lawrence.

 

John’s next poem, ‘A Summer Hour’, written in August 1894 and published in The Artist of October that year, pins his colours firmly to his chest, yet the poem still appeared under the name Bertram Lawrence:

 

A SUMMER HOUR

 
Love tarried for a moment on his way,
Against my cheek his curly head he lay;
He said that he would never leave my breast
If I would give him what I valued best.
Mine arms went out to greet him then and there,
What heart had I to cast out one so fair?
 
He whispered that his little feet were sore,
He was so weary he could go no more,
He showed the wounds upon his tender flesh,
And, as he whispered, bound me in his mesh.
He whispered in mine ear his piteous tale,
What heart had I to cast out one so fair?
 
I kissed his little hands, his lips, his hair,
And kissing gave my soul into his care,
Love laughed a little, like a child at play, –
‘Regretted that he could no longer stay,
He had so many things to do today,’ –
Another moment Love was far away.

 

In an Exeter College, Oxford, headed letter dated [Monday] 19^th November 1894, Bloxam informed Charles Kains Jackson that he had visited George Cecil Ives (1867-1950), at his flat in the Albany, Picadilly and says that he ‘had the good fortune to meet Oscar. We discussed the paper fully and the name. After a good deal of discussion we decided to change the first title yet again (from the Parrot Tulip). I think we have fixed on a very good one for which Ives must have the credit – “The Chameleon”. I think it is excellent.’ (15)

Kains Jackson says in his diary that Bloxom and Wilde visited his rooms on Tuesday 13^th November; three weeks later on Saturday 10^th December 1894, Kains Jackson confirms that he was responsible in suggesting the name change to ‘The Chameleon’. (16) Bloxom continued in his letter to Kains Jackson of 19^th November to say that ‘the next day [presumably Wednesday 14^th November] I visited Gay & Bird [publishers of The Chameleon]. They were very enthusiastic about one contribution I had secured, which they described as “most powerfully written”. To my amusement it turned out to be my own little story.’ He signs the letter, ‘Jack Bloxam’.

The Chameleon was published around the first week of December 1894 and several magazines mentioned the new publication, such as The Academy of Saturday 8^th December 1894 (p. 16) which said ‘the newest thing in magazines is the Chameleon, of which the first number may be expected by the end of the present week’. It went on to say that the ‘contributors are Mr. Oscar Wilde, Lord Alfred Douglas, Mr. Max Beerbohm, and – Mr. Lionel Johnson. The publishers are Messrs. Gay and Bird, to whom intending subscribers should address themselves promptly; for the issue is to be limited to one hundred copies.’ The Globe (Monday 3^rd December 1894, p. 6,7) said that ‘a new paper announced for next term. It is called “The Chameleon”, and as Mr. Oscar Wilde is to be one of its contributors, it may be expected to change the colour of its sins with each appearance.’ The Publishers’ Circular and Booksellers’ Record of British and Foreign Literature (volume 61, number 1484, Saturday 8^th December 1894, p. 660) declared that ‘this week Messrs. Gay & Bird publish the first number of a new magazine entitled the Chameleon, which is to be issued three times a year. The periodical, which originates at Oxford, bears by way of motto this line from Mr. R. L. Stevenson: ‘A Bazaar of Dangerous and Smiling Chances’. Signing contributors to the first number include Oscar Wilde, Lord Alfred Douglas, J. G. Nicholson, and Bertram Lawrence; while the anonymous articles include such topical matters as ‘On the Morality of the Comic Opera’ and ‘Les Decadents’.

And so the first edition of the Chameleon was published and of course Oscar Wilde’s witty epigrams, ‘Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young’ took ‘top billing’ as the first article (pp. 1-3) with such examples as: ‘Those who see any difference between soul and body have neither’, and ‘The only way to atone for being occasionally a little overdressed is by being always absolutely overeducated’. Then follows a two-part story by John Gambril Nicholson, ‘The Shadow of the End’ (pp. 4-7). The next article ‘A New Art A Note on the Poster’ (pp. 8-10) is signed ‘C’, but Timothy D’Arch Smith tells us in his ‘On The Chameleon: An Essay’ in the facsimile edition of The Chameleon by The Eighteen Nineties Society (1978) that it is by Charles Hiatt (1869-1904). Also on page 10 is ‘On the Morality of Comic Opera’ (pp. 10-15) signed ‘E’ before another anonymous poem – ‘Les Decadents’ (pp. 16-17); an article on James Anthony Froud, signed ‘A’ appears between pages 17-20 and Of ‘The Vagabonds’, By Margaret L. Woods, by ‘G’ (pp. 20-24). Lord Alfred Douglas bravely puts his name to the following poems: ‘In Praise of Shame’ (p. 25) and ‘Two Loves’ (pp. 26-28) before Bloxam’s two-part tale of love and suicide between a priest and a choir boy written in June the previous year (1894) which caused all the notoriety, ‘The Priest and the Acolyte’ (pp. 29-47) which he signs ‘X’ and was for a long time misattributed to Oscar Wilde. An unsigned poem, ‘Love in Oxford’, follows the turbulent matters between priest and the young acolyte (p. 48) before the article ‘Judicial Wit of Recent Times’ (pp. 49-51) is signed ‘K’ which Timothy D’Arch Smith in the 1978 facsimile edition informs us is by Charles Kains Jackson. ‘On the Appreciation of Trifles’ (pp. 52-58) signed ‘L’ leads us into the final three verse poem, ‘At Dawn’ (p. 59) by Bertram Lawrence which we know is by the editor, John Francis Bloxam:

 

AT DAWN
 
He came in the glow of the noon-tide sun,
He came in the dusk when the day was done,
He came with the stars; but I saw him not,
I saw him not.
 
But ah, when the sun with his earliest ray
Was kissing the tears of the night away,
I dreamed of the moisture of warm wet lips
Upon my lips.
 
Then sudden the shades of the night took wing,
And I saw that love was a beauteous thing,
For I clasped to my breast my curl-crowned king,
My sweet boy-king.

Bertram Lawrence.

 

The Priest and the Acolyte tells the tale of a 28 year old priest, Ronald Heatherington, of Holy Church, five years after ordination who is struggling with his natural feelings and instincts. Into his life comes young 14 year old Wilfred whose parents have both died and he was brought up by his grandparents, as his acolyte. The rest of the story is a beautiful yet scandalous ‘romance’ until they are found out by the Rector who threatens to expose them both. Ronald confesses his feelings and love for Wilfred but to no avail, the Rector is unmoved. And so, the Priest and his young Acolyte hold a midnight mass together and drink of the poisoned chalice and die in each other’s arms.

Timothy D’Arch Smith in his interesting essay on the Chameleon previously mentioned, also tells us that other notable writers whose work appeared within its pages but remained anonymous, were: Max Beerbohm (1872-1956), Lionel Johnson (1867-1902) and J. S. Green (17).

Not long after the publication of the Chameleon, Oscar Wilde wrote a letter to his dear friend, Ada Leverson (1862-1933) whom he referred to as the ‘Sphinx’ and who later proved her loyalty by standing by him throughout his being shunned as a social pariah, his imprisonment and beyond. The letter, undated but probably early December seems to show that Ada had read a copy of the Chameleon, either prior to publication or after, and she seems to misattribute ‘The Priest and the Acolyte’ as being the work of Wilde’s friend, John Gray (‘Dorian’) (18). Wilde replied from the Albemarle Club:

Dear Sphinx,

Your aphorisms must appear in the second number of the Chameleon: they are exquisite. ‘The Priest and the Acolyte’ is not by Dorian: though you were right in discerning by internal evidence that the author has a profile. He is an undergraduate of strange beauty. The story is, to my ears, too direct: there is no nuance: it profanes a little by revelation: God and other artists are always a little obscure. Still, it has interesting qualities, and is at moments poisonous: which is something. Ever yours Oscar. (19)

 

On Saturday 29^th December 1894 Jerome K. Jerome drew the public’s attention to The Chameleon in the pages of his weekly paper – ‘To-Day’ saying that the paper is ‘nothing more nor less than an advocacy for indulgence in the cravings of an unnatural disease.’ (p. 241) He begins his editorial by saying ‘I do not think I shall be mistaken for a prude on the prowl, but I am anxious for further information concerning a publication that has just come under my notice, called “The Chameleon”. He does not say how the paper came into his hands but goes on almost feverishly to say ‘that young men are here and there cursed with these unnatural cravings, no one acquainted with our public school life can deny. It is for such to wrestle with the devil within them; and many a long and agonised struggle is fought, unseen and unknown, within the heart of a young man. A publication of this kind, falling into his hands before the victory is complete, would, unless the poor fellow were of an exceptionally strong nature, utterly ruin him for all eternity.’ After crossing himself several times and splashing himself in holy water, the man who is not ‘a prude on the prowl’ goes on to say that ‘this magazine, which is to be issued three times a year, is an insult to the animal creation. It is an outrage on literature. How any body of men, having the fear of God before their eyes, could dare to issue it passes my comprehension. It can serve no purpose but that of evil. It can please no man or woman with a single grain of self-respect left in their souls. Let us have liberty; but this is unbridled licence. Let all things grow in literature which spring from the seeds of human nature. This is garbage and offal.’ [To-Day, volume v, number 60, Saturday 29^th December 1894, p. 241] A week later, having wiped the dribble and froth from his chin, he continues his rant against the ‘filthy, soul-destroying publication’ with a hint of smugness, saying ‘I am informed that “The Chameleon” has been withdrawn from publication, and that no further issue will appear, or that at all events it will be circulated in strict privacy, and will not be, allowed to fall into the hands of any people outside the precious coterie that is likely to enjoy its peculiar class of literature.’ [To-Day, Saturday 5^th January 1895, p. 17]

At the beginning of April 1895 the Wilde trials began at the Old Bailey; the first ‘libel’ case was begun on 3^rd April and lasted two day. During the trial, Sir Edward Carson (1854-1935) put several questions to Wilde relating to The Chameleon:

Carson: ‘Until you saw this number of The Chameleon did you know anything about the story “The Priest and the Acolyte”?’

Wilde: ‘Nothing at all.’

Carson: ‘Upon seeing the story in print, did you communicate with the editor?’

Wilde: ‘The editor came to see me in the Café Royal to speak to me about it.’

Carson: ‘Did you approve of the story of “The Priest and the Acolyte”?’

Wilde: 'I thought it bad and indecent and I strongly disapproved of it.’

Carson: ‘Was that disapproval expressed to the editor?’

Wilde: ‘Yes.’ (after several further questions Carson continues his line on The Priest and the Acolyte)…

Carson: ‘You have no doubt whatever that that was an improper story?’

Wilde: ‘From the literary point of view it was highly improper. It is impossible for a man of literature to judge it otherwise; by literature, meaning treatment, selection of subject, and the like. I thought the treatment rotten and the subject rotten.’

Carson: ‘You are of opinion, I believe, that there is no such thing as an immoral book?’

Wilde: ‘Yes’.

Carson: ‘May I take it that you think “The Priest and the Acolyte” was not immoral?’

Wilde: ‘It was worse. It was badly written.’

Carson continues his attack, asking if Wilde thought the story blasphemous?

Wilde: ‘The story filled me with disgust. The end was wrong.’ But Carson does not seem satisfied…

Wilde: ‘I thought it disgusting.’

Later, the foreman of the Jury asks Wilde if the editor of The Chameleon was a personal friend – ‘No, he was not’, said Wilde, who went on to repeat that he had only met him once. ‘I first wrote to him to say that I had really nothing to give him at all’, Wilde declared. ‘Afterwards I said that I would give him some aphorisms out of my plays.’

The second ‘Criminal’ trial took place at the Old bailey from 26^th April to 1^st May and the third trial (second ‘Criminal’) continued from 20^th-25^th May whereupon he was convicted. But it seems to me that opportunities were missed – during the first ‘libel’ trial, why was Bloxam not named under oath as editor of The Chameleon and as the author of the story, The Priest and the Acolyte? Why wasn’t he placed in the dock and charged with obscenities and corruption of the young? Why was his time at Exeter College not disrupted by such a scandal and allowed to continue? Were the Parnassian heights of Exeter College, Oxford immune to such salacious scandals connected to their divine halls? I can only conclude that Bloxam was considered a small part in the downfall of Wilde and that it was all heading towards the more serious charge of gross indecency against him. Bloxam escapes almost untarnished but he is known as the author and the editor by many literary figures and time seems to sweep over this fact. One wonders even if his own family knew anything about his contribution to the magazine and the effects it had on Wilde’s case? (20)

In his ‘De Profundis’, Wilde had this to say about the whole ‘Chameleon’ incident which he lays before Bosie, saying: ‘One day you came to me and ask me as a personal favour to you, to write something for an Oxford undergraduate magazine, about to be started by some friend of yours of whom I have never heard in all my life, and knew nothing at all about. To please you – what did I not do always to please you? – I sent him a page of paradoxes destined originally for the Saturday Review. A few months later I find myself standing in the dock of the Old Bailey on account of the character of the magazine. It forms part of the Crown charge against me. I am called upon to defend your friend’s prose and your own verse. The former I cannot palliate: the latter I, loyal to the bitter extreme, to your youthful literature as to your youthful life, do very strongly defend, and will not hear of your being a writer of indecencies. But I go to prison, all the same, for your friend’s undergraduate magazine and the “Love that dare not tell its name”.’

While Wilde was in the dock and facing incarceration, John Francis Bloxam was awarded his B.A. in 1895 and graduated from Exeter College, Oxford. After leaving Oxford he entered Ely Theological College in 1896 and he was ordained deacon at Rochester Cathedral in 1897 and priest the following year where he was given a curacy at St. Agnes’s Church, Kensington Park, London. He was awarded his M.A. from Oxford University in 1901 and the following year, 1902, he was curate of St. Andrew’s Church, Worthing and he then returned to London in 1904 to be curate of St. Cyprian’s Church, Dorset Square, in Marylebone until 1905. He was then curate of St. Mary’s, Graham Street, where he remained until 1922. [his address during 1905 was 124, Ebury Street, London, SW]

Since the publication of The Priest and the Acolyte it was being misattributed as the work of Oscar Wilde. The bibliographer of Oscar Wilde, Christopher Sclater Millard (1872-1927) and friend and private secretary to Wilde’s literary executor, Robert Ross, took a stand against this. Millard, of Keble College, Oxford, who wrote under the name Stuart Mason, sent a letter from Oxford to the editor of The Publisher’s Circular dated 21^st April 1906 and it appeared under the heading: ‘A Warning to Booksellers’, and he then brings the readers’ attention to the fraud and deception in the name of Oscar Wilde and he asks the ‘Publisher’s Circular’ to use caution when inserting advertisements of ‘pirated editions under false descriptions.’ He goes on to say ‘may I ask you, also, not to insert advertisements of ‘The Priest and the Acolyte’ under Oscar Wilde’s name? He was not the author of this story, the contents of which he described as ‘perfect twaddle’. I have done my best for years past to refute this horrible libel, and to nail this lie to the counter. I have written to several booksellers stating the facts of the case, and letters to the same effect have been inserted in the St James’s Gazette, the Sphere, and other papers. I have also, repudiated Wilde’s authorship of this story in my ‘Oscar Wilde: A Study’, and Mr. Sherard has done so even more emphatically in his recent book, ‘Twenty Years in Paris’. (21)

The following year, (1907), Stuart Mason (Millard) re-published ‘The Priest and the Acolyte’, ‘With an Introductory Protest by Stuart Mason’ to finally set the record straight. The volume was published by The Lotus Press of London and in his Introductory Protest, Millard, who does not mention the author as being Bloxam, says that he was an ‘“insufficiently birched schoolboy” as he has recently been described, and he alone was responsible for the contents of the magazine which he edited.’

Bloxam was a great admirer and collector of ‘blue and white’ ceramics, mostly Ming porcelain, chiefly the latter part of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1643) and he lent some of his collection to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in their Loan Court exhibition (room 4) from 1915. (22)

He served as Army Chaplain with the rank of Captain to the 16^th Battalion of the Sherwood Forresters (117^th, 39 Division) during the 3^rd Ypres battles of Menin Road (September 1917) and he also served with the 16^th Battalion the King’s Royal Rifle Corps (100^th Brigade, 33^rd Division) during operations on the River Selle in October 1918.

The announcement that Rev. Bloxam had been awarded the M.C. was published in the London Gazette of Monday 26^th November, 1917, and the following day, the Morning Post of Tuesday 27^th November 1917 (p. 3) mentioned Bloxam under the heading: ‘Awards for Bravery in the Field – Rev. John Francis Bloxam (Army Chaplain)’ and the same paper of Thursday 13^th December (p. 5) listed the names of those awarded honours and decorated by the King. The Investiture at Buckingham Palace took place on Wednesday 12^th December and Bloxam was awarded his Military Cross.

Major General Reginald John Pinney (1867-1939), Commanding Officer of the 33^rd Division, British Expeditionary Force, commended Bloxam for his heroic actions and distinguished service a few months later in 1918, [War Office, 6^th April 1918], and the Dublin Daily Express of Monday 8^th April 1918 (p. 6) in a list of fellow recipients of the M.C. and a ‘statement of service’ for the award, said that Rev. John Francis Bloxam, A. Chaplain’s Department, ‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty.  He went forward regardless of danger with the advanced troops in an attack and assisted in dressing and removing the wounded. When the enemy positions had been captured he went out under heavy machine gun fire and rifle fire, and searched shell-holes for wounded. He was of the greatest assistance to the Medical Officer, and set a splendid example of courage and self-sacrifice to all.’

From his distinguished war record we can remove any notion of Bloxam being a wilting decadent aesthete for as well as being a man of ‘strange beauty’ he seems to be made of stronger stuff of which he also proves later in his life in the role of vicar in a London slum.

Bloxam was Temporary Chaplain to the Forces from 1917-1919 and after the war he returned to St. Mary, Graham Street. Bloxam’s curate at St. Mary’s Church was the Rev. Maurice Child (1884-1950) of St. John’s College, Oxford, who began his office there in 1917. As Bloxam was away for most of the time serving with the forces, Child took over the services until Bloxam returned; ‘it is not clear whether Child knew anything of his colleague’s past: today he [Bloxam] is remembered by a statue of St. Joseph in St. Mary, Bourne Street’ [then Graham Street] (23)

In 1922 he was appointed by the Bishop of London, Arthur Winnington-Ingram (1858-1946) as the vicar of St. Saviour’s, Hoxton, a ‘notoriously ritualistic church’ in the diocese of London, where his address was: St. Saviour’s Presbytery, Northport Street, Hoxton, London, N1.

J. Z. Eglinton tells us in his ‘The Later Career of John Francis Bloxam’ (24) that Bloxam succeeded ‘his friend Rev. E. E. Kilburn [Ernest Edward Kilburn (1863-1963) of St. John’s College, Oxford; deacon 1891 and priest 1892] on the latter’s resignation and entry into the Roman Catholic church. He promptly left his curateship at St. Mary’s, in the wealthiest quarter of London, for the vicarate at St. Saviour’s, in the desolate slum of Hoxton, staying there until August 1927, resigning from ill health ten months before his death.’ Eglinton also tells us that ‘during Father Bloxam’s chaplaincy in the British forces in the war, he contracted some severe throat ailment which plagued him until the end of his life. It caused voice failure during preaching and doubtless contributed to his final illness; medical specialists could do nothing, and Father Bloxam [of Hazelbury House, an early 18^th century town house with seven bay windows and a central Georgian portico, in New Street, Painswick, Stroud, Gloucestershire] died on Good Friday, April 6^th, 1928.’

He was buried at Painswick on Thursday afternoon, 12^th April that year. (25)

‘Upon his death Bloxam was eulogized not only for his “pastoral genius,” but also for his “passionate love of beauty.”’ (26)

George Cecil Ives had this to say of John Francis Bloxam after his death in his diary of 21^st April, saying he ‘became medieval, and was practically a Catholic’ and ‘his life might have been more peaceful but for his religion, which put him in conflict with his whole nature’. (27)

 

 

NOTES:

 

1. Richard Bloxam, born Hinckley, Leicestershire on 31^st March 1741, surgeon, medical practitioner and apothecary, married Susannah Rouse, daughter of Samuel Rouse (1705-1775), draper and amateur astronomer; she was born on 21^st February 1737, and married in the City of Westminster on 10^th November 1763 (Susannah died 19^th July 1804). Richard Bloxam died aged 83 in Alcester on 1^st February 1825 and is buried in the old cemetery there. He was the son of Richard Bloxam (1712-1776) and Elizabeth Crosbe (1712-1779) of Birmingham who were married in 1736.
2. Rev. Richard Rouse Bloxam, D.D., son of Richard and Susannah Bloxam, born Alcester on 14^th February 1765, he became a Master at Rugby School and married Anne Lawrence (1767-1835) on 10^th April 1796 at St. Anne’s Church, Middlesex. Anne was the sister of the well-known portrait painter and 4^th President of the Royal Academy, Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1839) who painted several members of the Bloxam family. Reverend Bloxam died in Rugby on 28^th March 1840 aged 75. (Another Great Uncle was Samuel Anthony Bloxam, born Alcester on 18^th September 1773 who was educated at Christ’s Hospital and became a veterinary surgeon officer to the 1^st Regiment of Life Guards. He died on 25^th December 1829 at Egham in Surrey)
3. James Mackenzie Bloxam, son of Robert Bloxam, born in Ryde on 15^th April 1909, barrister and inventor of the dipleidoscope in 1846; a member of the Royal Astronomical Society, he published several books on horology – Improvements on Meridean Intruments (1843), On the Principles and Construction of a New Instrument called the Dipleidoscope (1846), On the Mathematical Theory and Practical Defects of Clock Escapements (1854), On the Climate of Madeira (1854). He died on 1^st September 1857 and was buried in Bonchurch on 7^th September. (Another Uncle, George Kirkpatrick Bloxam, born in Ryde on 5^th October 1817, died at the age of 25 in Middlesex on 23^rd November 1842).
4. John Charlton Bloxam, M.R.C.S., son of Robert Bloxam, was born in Newport on 22^nd July 1806 and was a member of the Royal Meteorological Society. The author of On the Meteorology of Newport in the Isle of Wight, from 1841-1856, he married Mary Jane Eveleigh (1803-1878), youngest daughter of the late General Eveleigh, R.A., at the Old Manor House, Ryde, Isle of Wight, on 17^th January 1860. John died at Niton, Isle of Wight on 11^th March 1876 and was buried there on 16^th March. Another Uncle of John’s was Richard Bloxam (1809-1896) who married Mary Ann Turner (1824-1899) on 27^th November 1845 at St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster. Two of their children (John Bloxam’s cousins) were: Francis Richard Turner Bloxam (1850-1939), a solicitor in the firm of Paterson, Snow, Bloxam and Kinder of Lincoln’s Inn, and Taxing Master at the Supreme Court since 1908 (resigned 1929), and Frederick Turner Bloxam (1860-1929), Chief Registrar of Chancery in the Supreme Court who married Harriet Louisa Fletcher (born 1859) in London in 1887 [their child, Nancy Frances Vere Bloxam (1896-1984) married Kenneth McCraith in 1927] Perhaps interesting to note is the son of Francis Richard Turner Bloxam: Richard Noel Bloxam (John Bloxam’s first cousin once removed), born in Kensington on 25^th December 1887. He was a pupil of Ripley Court and won a scholarship to Rugby School aged 13, from there on a classics scholarship in 1902, he went on to Bradfield School and thence up to Balliol College, Oxford on 23^rd January 1908. Since 1925 he was a member of the Surrey Archeological Society and helped the late Captain C. M. H. Pearce with excavations at Newark Abbey. He taught Latin and Greek as a Master at Ripley Court School under its Principle, Mrs. Pearce (later under her son-in-law, Guy Onslow) and he was a member of the Parochial Church Council and sang in the choir for many years. he established a troop of Boy Scouts in Ockham with the help and encouragement from Lady Lovelace; he enjoyed watching cricket and was one of the oldest supporters of Ripley Green Cricket Club (he published a brochure describing Ripley Parish and the church and he was an authority on the history of Ockham and Ripley with reference to the old families). He died on Thursday 1^st May 1969 at a nursing home in Guildford in Surrey, aged 81 and his funeral took place at Guildford Crematorium on Monday 5^th May. [Surrey Advertiser. Friday 9^th May 1969. p.19]
5. Robert William Bloxam, F.R.C.S., son of Robert Bloxam, born 18^th September 1807 became a surgeon and married Henrietts Louisa Ann Jeannette Lock (1824-1905) at St. Thomas Church, Ryde on 10^th June 1847 and together they had thirteen children, three of whom were: Robert Henry Raynsford Bloxam, born in Ryde in 1855 who married Eliza Cass (1858-1934) in Norwich on 14^th August 1888; he died on 23^rd August 1918; Adelaide Caroline Bloxam, born Ryde in 1861 who married Reginald Frances Hallward in Hammersmith on 23^rd May 1886; she died aged 64 on 30^th March 1925 and Arthur Charlton Bloxam, born Ryde on 1^st January 1863 and dying 18^th February 1919 and buried in Ryde Old Cemetery. Robert died on Isle of Wight on 10^th January 1868. Another Uncle of John Bloxam’s was Henry Bloxam, born in Newport in 1807 who married Elizabeth Fulleck (1814-1897) on 7^th September 1843 in Bramshot, Hampshire. They had at least three sons (cousins of John Bloxam): (a) Robert John Bloxam, born Portsmouth, Hampshire in 1845 [Christened there 2^nd September] was a civil servant who married Mary Hannah Milburn (1848-1931) in London in 1870; Robert took an interest in ‘municipal affairs’ and from 1919-1921 was a member of the Tunbridge Wells Town Council. He died in a local nursing home on11th May 1922 ‘after a long illness of over two years’ and left a ‘widow to mourn her loss.’ The funeral service was held at St. Augustine’s Catholic Church, Grosvenor Road, prior to internment on Tuesday 16^th May [Kent & Sussex Advertiser. Friday 19^th May 1922, p. 2] (b) Henry Edward Bloxam, born Portsmouth, Hampshire in 1848 [christened 12^th June at St. Thomas, Portsmouth] was a solicitor who married Annie Elizabeth Dunn (1867-1935) in Islington, London in 1904. He died aged 64 in Bethnal Green, London on 30^th May 1912, and (c) Alfred Fulleck Bloxam (1850-1917) who married Mary Charlotte Perceval Kearney (1857-1939) on 29^th January 1885 in Surrey and they had two sons: Robert Silver Bloxam born 1886 (Hampstead) and Harold Perceval Bloxam (1892-1969). Henry Bloxam died in London on 4^th December 1870.
6. Rev. Richard Rowland Henry Kent Bloxam, son of Richard Rouse Bloxam, was born 13^th January 1797 and educated at Rugby School before going up to Worcester College, Oxford on 14^th October 1815 aged 18, (BA 1819); he was ordained deacon in 1819 and priest the following year by the Bishop of Peterborough. Reverend Bloxam was a mycologist and he took part in an expedition and published his volume – ‘Voyage of HMS Blonde, to the Sandwich Islands in the Years 1824-1825’ (1827). He was chaplain in the Royal Navy from 1824 until he retired in 1845 and married three times: Sarah Clack probably on 31^st March 1823 in Edgbaston. Birmingham; Anabella Goldie (1801-1846), 7^th May 1826 and Eleanor Harper (1801-18224) sometime later. He was called to the Scottish Bar in 1862 and spent nine years as H.M. judge in Jamaica; rector of Harlaston in Staffordshire from 1850 until his death aged 80 on 23^rd January 1877; he was buried in Leamington Cemetery.
7. Rev. Thomas Lawrence Bloxam, son of Richard Rouse Bloxam, was born in Rugby on 17^th February 1798 and educated at Rugby School, late scholar of Lincoln College, Oxford, matriculating on 11^th November 1816 aged 18, (BA 1821). He was ordained deacon in 1822 by the Bishop of Peterborough, and priest in 1824 by the Bishop of Lichfield. He was curate of Brinklow in Rugby from 1823-1849 and was the subject of a painting by the artist, Frederick Christian Lewis (1779-1856) – ‘Portrait of Thomas Lawrence Bloxam’. Rev. Thomas Bloxam died aged 82 on 3^rd June 1880.
8. Rev. Andrew Bloxam, was the 4^th son of Richard Rouse Bloxam, born in Rugby on 22^nd September 1801 and educated at Rugby School (1809) and Worcester College, Oxford, matriculating on 1^st December 1820 aged 19, (BA 1824, MA 1827). He became a naturalist and botanist and was on board HMS Blonde as a naturalist during its voyage of 1824-1826 around South America and the Pacific [his brother, Richard Rowland Bloxam also served as chaplain during the voyage] see his ‘Diary of Andrew Bloxam, Naturalist of The “Blonde” on her trip from England to the Hawaiian Islands, 1824-25’ [Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, 1925] He was ordained deacon in 1826 and priest the following year by the Bishop of Oxford and became Rector of Great Harborough from 1871 until his death. He married Anne Roby (born 1809) in Leicestershire on 3^rd July 1838 and had at least seven children, one of whom was his first son, the English cricketer, botanist and lawyer, Andrew Roby Bloxam (1839-1923) who went up to Worcester College, Oxford on 14^th May 1857 aged 18. [Andrew Roby Bloxam married Katherine Fanny Isabella Smith (1845-1903) in New Zealand in 1903; their son was henry Roby Bloxam (1884-1965) who married Keitha Mary Saxton ((1883-1975) in 1915 and their son was Wing Commander (RAF) John Roby Bloxam (1918-2001) OBE, DFC. After his first wife’s death in 1903, Andrew Roby Bloxam married again in 1905, Isabella Mary Martin(1873-1952) and they had the following children:Gwendoline Martha Drayton Bloxam (1907-2000), Andrew Carrick Bloxam (1910-2001) and Barbara Bloxam (1910-2001)] Reverend Andrew Bloxam died aged 76 on 2^nd February 1878 at Harborough, Warwickshire.
9. Matthew Holbeche Bloxam, F.S.A., son of Richard Rouse Bloxam, born Rugby on 12^th May 1805 and educated at Rugby School (1813), he was an antiquarian and amateur archaeologist. He became a solicitor in 1821 and clerk of the court from 1831-1871. He is the author of ‘The Principles of Gothic Architecture’ (1829) and later, ‘The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture’ (1844). He died on 24^th April 1888.
10. Rev. John Rouse Bloxam, the 6^th son of  Richard Rouse Bloxam, born Rugby on 25^th April 1807 and educated at Rugby School (1814) and Worcester College, Oxford on 20^th May 1826 aged 19, he was a historian and antiquarian and Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford (BA 1832, MA 1835, B.D. 1843, D.D. 1847). He was ordained deacon in 1832 by the Bishop of Oxford and priest the following year by the same Bishop; he became chaplain and classics master at Wyke House a private school from 1832-33 and Bromsgrove School from 1833-36. He became curate to John Henry Newman (1801-1890) from 1837-40 and they became good friends (see: Newman & Bloxam: An Oxford Friendship. Robert Dudley Middleton. Greenwood Press. 1971); he was also a friend of the architect Augustus Pugin (1812-1852). Vicar of Upper Beeding in Sussex from 1862, he was the author of various works, including ‘Rugby the School and Neighbourhood, Collected and Arranged from the Writings of the Late Matthew Holbeche Bloxam’. London. Whittaker & Co. 1889 and the seven volumes of the Magdalen College Register. He died at the priory in Upper Beeding on 21^st January 1891.
11. Isle of Wight Observer. Saturday 30^th August 1856, p. 4.
12. George Edward Bloxam of Lower Weston, Bath, married Emma Jane Sloan (1859-1949) daughter of J. A. Sloan of Lower Weston, Bath at St. John’s Church, Weston, on 21^st February 1891 [London Evening Standard, Monday 23^rd February 1891, p. 1] They had two daughters (John Bloxam’s nieces): Margery Phyllis Bloxam born in Weston on 16^th October 1894 and died unmarried in Somerset in 1971, and Norah Hope Bloxam, born in Weston in 1900 and dying, unmarried in London, on 3^rd May 1939. George Edward Bloxam was educated at Winchester College in 1872 and became a Medical Practitioner: St. George’s Hospital LRCP (London 1883), MRCS (England 1883); Medical Officer and Public Vaccinator, number 7 District, Bath Union and Medical Officer Western Dispensary, Bath, late House Physician and resident Obstetrician at St. George’s Hospital, London. He died in Bath, Somerset on 26^th February 1919 and he is buried in Locksbrook Cemetery, Lower Weston, Bath, Somerset.
13. Bath Herald, Friday 30^th June 1893, p. 4; Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 17^th August 1893, p. 2, Illustrated London News, Saturday 12^th August 1893, p. 27, and The Irish Law Times and Solicitor’s Journal, volume 33, 21^st January 1899, p. 40. William Richard Bloxam and Mabel Frances Farran had two sons (John Bloxam’s nephews): Guy Cholmley Bloxam (1900-1983) and Patrick Francis Cholmley Bloxam (1905-1990). William Richard Bloxam was educated at Winchester College in 1883 and became a solicitor in 1894 and was practicing at 36, Lincoln’s Inn Fields and in Pinner with Messrs. Tooth & Bloxam and also senior partner in the firm of Little & Bloxam in Stroud. An interesting article in the Birmingham Daily Post of Friday 19^th November 1915 (p. 9) shows that all was not well within the Bloxam household – ‘Local Matrimonial Suit, In the Divorce Division yesterday [Thursday 18^th November] Mr. Justice Bargrave Deane and a special Jury had before them the case of Bloxam v. Bloxam. The wife, Mrs. Mabel Frances Bloxam, now a nurse at an institution near Birmingham, asked for an order for the restitution of conjugal rights. Her husband, Mr. William Richard Bloxam, a solicitor, cross-petitioned for a judicial separation.’ They finally agreed that ‘the wife’s petition should be dismissed on the signing of a deed of separation.’  The two boys, Guy and Patrick were aged 15 and 10, respectively.
14. Wimbledon and District Gazette and South Western Times, Saturday 26^th August 1893, p. 2; see also the York Herald, Saturday 12^th August 1893, p. 6.
15. Letter: Bloxam to Kains Jackson, Clark Library, Wilde B657LK13, Box 6, Folder 5.
16. George Cecil Ives papers, 1874-1949, (Diaries), Harry Ransom Centre, the University of Texas at Austin, (volume 5, number 21-25).
17. Timothy D’Arch Smith mentions the name ‘J. S. Green’ and the only possible candidate I could find was James Samuel Green born in London in 1860, the only son of James Richard Goring Green  (1834-1919) who married Matilda Hitchings (born 1838) in Kensington in 1856. James Samuel Green matriculated at Pembroke College, Oxford on 4^th February 1880, aged 19 (BA 1883, B.C.L. & MA 1886); Student of Lincoln’s Inn on 16^th January 1882 (aged 21) and Scholarship International Law and Constitutional Law (1884); called to the Bar 29^th April 1885. He married Georgiana Elizabeth Forty (born Kensington 1866), only daughter of James Forty at St. Marylebone, London on 15^th August 1888; a daughter named Marjorie Barbara Green was born in Paddington in 1889 but died two years later; two surviving daughters were: Olive Norah Green (1892) and Joan Nancy Green (1893). James Samuel Green died in 1930 aged 70. It is possible that Green knew Kains Jackson, being in the same profession, Kains Jackson passing his final Law examinations in 1880.
18. John Gray (1866-1934), poet and later Catholic priest, friend of Wilde, Beardsley and many other notable figures of the fin de siecle who published a collection of verse, ‘Silverpoints’ in 1893. He is also well-known for being the life partner of fellow poet and Catholic convert, the French born Marc Andre Raffalovich (1864-1934).
19. The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde, edited by Merlin Holland & Rupert Hart-Davis. New York, Henry Holt and Company. 200. p. 625.
20. Court transcripts taken from: The Trials of Oscar Wilde. H. Montgomery Hyde. London, William Hodge. 1948 [1973, New York, Dover edition. pp. 106-107, and p. 139]
21. The Publisher’s Circular and Booksellers’ Record, volume 84, number 2078, Saturday 28^th April 1906, pp. 505-506.
22. Upon Bloxam’s death in 1928, his heirs: Miss M. S. Bloxam, Miss A. Bloxam and Mr. W. R. Bloxam, donated his pieces to the V & A and the British Museum. See also: ‘Ming Porcelain and some others from the Bloxam Collection’, by R. L. Hobson. Old Furniture, volume 5, number 16, 1928, p. 3, also the’Collection of Ming China, property of the late J. F. Bloxam, M.C.’ Sotherbys & Co. 19^th July 1928.
23. Outposts of the Faith – Anglo-Catholicism in Some Rural Parishes. Michael Yelton. Norwich, Canterbury Press. 2009. pp. 114-115. The statue of St. Joseph, a memorial to J. F. Bloxam who served as curate at St Mary from 1905-1922, is situated in the South aisle.
24. The Later Career of John Francis Bloxam by J. Z. Eglinton. International Journal of Greek Love, volume 1, November 1966, pp. 40-42 (p. 42 and 41 for the respective references). Also see: Vanished Church, Vanished Streets: The Parish of St. Saviour’s, Hoxton, by John Harwood, East London Record number 9 (1986) pp. 14-17.
25. Cheltenham Chronicle, Saturday 14^th April 1928, p. 9.
26. Decadence and Catholicism. Ellis Hanson, Harvard University Press. Cambridge, MA and London, England. 1997, p. 311 [‘Priests and Acolytes’]
27. George Cecil Ives papers, 1874-1949, diary (21^st April 1928, volume 92), Harry Ransom Centre.