Patrick Comerford
I have been writing enthusiastically in recent days about my visit to Lichfield Cathedral and the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital in Lichfield last week, and how these two places have been spiritual homes to me for more than 50 years, since I was in my late teens.
I wrote yesterday that I never cease to wonder at how I can see things with fresh eyes each time I visit either place, and how I had a fresh look last Wednesday at three windows in Lichfield Cathedral with Advent and Christmas themes that are appropriate at this time of the year: the west window and the Jesse Window in the north transept window, both by Clayton and Bell, and the ‘Faith, Hope and Charity window’ in the south aisle by Ward and Hughes.
But, undoubtedly, the one artist and designer who has made an enduring and lasting contribution to Lichfield Cathedral is Charles Eamer Kemp (1837-1907), best-known in the late Victorian period for his stained-glass windows.
The Cambridge Church Historian Owen Chadwick (1916-2015) has said Kempe’s work represents ‘the Victorian zenith’ of church decoration and stained glass windows. His studios produced over 4,000 windows and designs for altars and altar frontals, furniture and furnishings, lichgates and memorials that helped to define a later 19th century Anglican style.
Kempe studied architecture under George Frederick Bodley and then at the Clayton & Bell studio, where his first work was produced in 1865. He worked independently from 1866 into the 20th century, with his own workshop from 1869. English cathedrals that display his work include Lichfield, along with Chester, Gloucester, Hereford, Wells, Winchester and York.
His imposing South Transept window (1895) in Lichfield Cathedral, which I was writing about last Wednesday (29 November 2023), is in memory of the Revd Henry Gylby Lonsdale (1791-1851), Vicar of Saint Mary’s, Lichfield (1830-1851), who lived at Lyncroft House, now the Hedgehog Vintage Inn, Lichfield, and his brother John Lonsdale (1788-1867), Bishop of Lichfield (1843-1867).
The South Transept window shows Christ the King surrounded by angels, saints and bishops of the Early Church, including Saint Columba, Saint Wulstan, Saint Chad, Saint Augustine, Saint Aidan, Saint Hugh, Saint Basil, Saint Cyril, Saint Patrick, Saint Ignatius, Saint Polycarp, Saint Boniface, Saint Martin, Saint David of Wales, Saint Gregory, Saint Augustine of Hippo, Saint Athanasius, Saint Cyprian, Saint Isidore, Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Ambrose of Milan and Saint Vigilius.
Kempe’s work in Lichfield Cathedral includes installing and restoring the 16th century Flemish glass from the Abbey of Herkenrode in the Lady Chapel (1889) and designing the Lady Chapel altar, the carved wooden reredos and the altar rails (1895). At the east end of the south aisle, he restored the 16th century Flemish window acquired in 1802 by Sir Brooke Boothby (1744-1824) of Ashbourne, who had close family connections with the Moat House, the Comberford family’s former Jacobean mansion on Lichfield Street, Tamworth.
In all, Kempe designed half the windows in the cathedral. His other windows include: ‘King David Instructing the Musicians’ (1890), in the north quire aisle in memory of the Revd William St George Patterson (1817-1890), in which King David instructs the musicians in the music of the sanctuary (1890, see I Chronicles 16, 4-7); Saint Peter in chains preaching, a memorial to the Very Revd Herbert Mortimer Luckock (1833-1909), who was instrumental in building All Saints’ Church on Jesus Lane, Cambridge, and later was Dean of Lichfield (1892-1909); Saint Peter and Saint John healing a lame man in the Temple (1894, see Acts 3), in memory of Dr Halford Wotton Hewitt, who died in 1891; and some windows in the Chapter House; Saint Stephen preaching to the Sanhedrin (1895); the Barnabas Window (1898); and ‘Self-Sacrifice’ in Saint Michael’s Chapel (1904).
In the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield, Kempe’s window on the south side depicts Saint John the Baptist and Saint George the Martyr. He may also have designed the window opposite this on the north side of the chapel depicting Saint Philip the Apostle and William Smyth, the 15th century Bishop of Lichfield who re-founded Saint John’s Hospital in 1495 as an almshouse. Nearby, in Christ Church, Leomansley, Kempe designed the glass for the north transept west window (1894).
There are three other windows by Kempe in Lichfield Cathedral that I looked at afresh last week but that I have not written about in detail before.
A window by Kempe in the north nave aisle depicts the Prophet Samuel, the Apostle Paul and the Philosopher Origen in the upper panels (1895). The panels below show: Samuel teaching the Sons of the Prophets, Saint Paul saying farewell to the Elders at Miletus, and Saint Catherine and the Philosophers of Alexandria.
This Kempe window, which emphasises theological discourse and education and the relationship between philosophy and theology, is in memory of Canon George Herbert Curteis (1824-1894) of Lichfield Cathedral, who was Professor of Testament Exegesis at King’s College London and Principal of Lichfield Theological College.
A second Kempe window in the north nave aisle depicts (1905) Saint Martin of Tours, Saint Edmund the Martyr and Saint Maurice in the upper part. The lower part of the windows shows Saint Martin at the gate of Amiens giving a beggar half his cloak, Saint Edmund choosing to die a martyr for his faith, and Saint Maurice and his companions in the Theban legion laying down their lives for their faith.
This window links self-sacrifice and martyrdom with the love of others and is in memory of members the North Staffordshire Regiment who fought in the Dongola Expedition (1896) and the South African War.
Although Kempe’s great South Window in the South Transept is undoubtedly his tour de force in the cathedral, his best-known window in the cathedral is probably the Hacket Window (1901) in the South Quire Aisle.
This window illustrates John Bishop Hacket’s restoration of Lichfield Cathedral in the 1660s, and it was commissioned in 1901 to celebrate the completion of the Victorian restoration of the cathedral.
The Hacket window is seen as one of Kempe’s most striking contributions to the cathedral. In graphic detail and in period costume it depicts Bishop Hacket and those working on its restoration after the Civil War. The text at the foot of the left-hand panel explains that the cathedral was ‘overthrown by violent and wicked hands’ and was almost in ruins when he was appointed bishop in 1661.
