The oldest coffee house from 17th century London survives at the Jamaica Wine House in Cornhill

xxx (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Over the years, I have tried to search for the oldest coffee house in England. The story of these early coffee houses is told in the cafés on Queen Street in Oxford and the street names on the Coffee Hall estate in Milton Keynes.

While I was London last week, I went in search of the oldest coffee shops in London. But they are long predated by two coffee shops in Oxford that vie for the title of the oldest coffeehouse in England.

Gianfrancesco Morosini – whose family gave their name to the Morosini Fountain in Lion Square in Iraklion, Crete – first brought coffee to the attention of Venetians in 1585. He reported how the Turks had developed a taste for drinking ‘a black water, boiled up as hot as they could bear it, which is distilled from a seed called kahvé and which they say has the property of making a man stay awake.’

By the mid-17th century, coffee was being sold in Venice as a medicine, and the first coffeehouse beyond the Levant opened in Venice in 1647. However, although Caffé Florian on Saint Mark’s Square claims to be ‘the first real café in Europe’, it did not open until 29 December 1720. The Café Procope on the Rue de l’Ancienne Comédie, which claims to be the oldest café in Paris in continuous operation, opened in 1686.

‘Jacob the Jew’ from Lebanon is said to have opened the very first coffeehouse in England at the Angel Inn on the High Street in Oxford in 1650. Jacob’s coffeehouse in Oxford is believed to have been the first European coffeehouse after Venice, and the Grand Café now stands on the same site on the High.

According to the diarist Samuel Pepys and others, Jacob opened his coffeehouse in Oxford in 1650. Anthony à Wood, the Oxford antiquarian, records that ‘Jacob the Jew opened a coffey house at the Angel’ in Oxford in 1651, ‘and there it was by some, who delighted in noveltie, drank.’

Some years later, across the street, Cirques Jobson, a Jewish merchant from the Levant or Syria, opened the Queen’s Lane Coffee House in 1654. Anthony à Wood records Cirques Jobson sold coffee ‘in a house between Edmund Hall and Queen College Corner’ – the site of today’s Queen’s Lane Coffee House. It claims to be the oldest coffeehouse to continually serve coffee in Europe.

xxx (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Both cafés in Oxford opened around the same time as the Jamaica Wine House first opened as a coffeehouse in the City of London. I found this Grade II listed building last week behind Saint Michael’s Church, Cornhill, hidden away in St Michael’s Alley, amid a labyrinth of mediaeval courts and backstreets just off Cornhill and near the Royal Exchange.

Today it is one of the Square Mile’s most popular pubs and wine bars, known to many as ‘The Jampot’. It is a traditional London pub, with a wood-panelled bar and high ceilings. But it claims to be the birthplace of London’s coffee house scene and a history stretching back hundreds of years.

The Jamaica Wine House stands on the site of on the site of what is widely regarded as London’s first coffee house. It was opened by Pasqua Rosée in 1652 and counted Samuel Pepys amongst its earliest patrons.

Pasqua Rosée was born in the early 17th century into the ethnic Greek community in Ragusa, now southern Croatia, and by 1651 he was living in Smyrna (İzmir) in the Ottoman Empire, where he became the servant of Daniel Edwards, an English merchant of the Levant Company.

Edwards brought Pasqua Rosée to London in 1651 to prepare coffee for him and his household. A year later, Edwards helped his former servant to open his own coffee house, where some claim coffee was made and sold to the public for the first time in England. The coffee house quickly became a meeting place for merchants and traders, and is known in some accounts as the Turk’s Head.

Rosée’s own profile was depicted in the sign at his coffeehouse sign. He was shown resplendent in a turban, with a twirly moustache. The image of the head of a man of Turkish origin became the default sign for all coffee houses, and may explain why the ‘Turk’s Head’ became a popular name for pubs.

xxx (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

After the Great Fire of London destroyed much of the surrounding area, a new Jamaica coffee house was established on the same site between 1674 and 1680. Rosée’s coffee house was probably destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, but its replacement escaped the fire of 1748, which began nearby in Exchange Alley or Change Alley.

Coffeehouses in England became melting pots of independent thinking and political debate from the mid-17th century, and were known as ‘penny universities’ – a penny was the price of a coffee, with unlimited refills and a newspaper to read.

But the coffeehouses were soon identified with egalitarian and republican politics. Charles II considered banning them in 1675, claiming that ‘by occasion of the meetings of such persons therein, diverse False, Malitious and Scandalous Reports are devised and spread abroad, to the Defamation of His Majesties Government, and to the Disturbance of the Peace and Quiet of the Realm.’ In the face of a public outcry, the king relented after two weeks.

xxx (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

By the 18th century, the Jamaica had become closely associated with trade between London and Jamaica and the wider British West Indies. The Jamaica Coffee House was to the West India trade what the Jerusalem Coffee House was to the East India trade. Merchants, ship owners, insurance brokers and traders used it for business meeting. By the mid-18th century, the Jamaica, London, was recognised as a reliable address for receiving letters and documents destined for Jamaica.

Most of the coffee houses in 17th and 18th century London were involved in the slave trade in some way. The Jamaica Coffee House accommodated all sorts of individuals buying and selling cargo from Jamaica, including people bought and sold as slaves. London newspapers often printed appeals for information regarding enslaved and bonded runaways that gave the Jamaica coffee house as their point of contact.

The popularity of coffeehouses began to decline in the 18th century, as tea became more popular and as exclusive gentlemen’s clubs began to develop. As tastes changed and tea became increasingly popular, the traditional coffee house evolved into a tavern, and it began trading as the Jamaica Wine House in 1869. The building now on the site, a Victorian public house, dates from 1885. A plaque on the wall reads, ‘Here stood the first London Coffee house at the sign of the Pasqua Rosee’s Head 1652.’

xxx (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

There were several coffee houses close to the Royal Exchange and Lloyds. The Jerusalem and East India Coffee house was in Cowper’s Court, Lloyd’s Subscription Coffee house was at the west end of the Royal Exchange, and Jonathan’s Coffee House was a significant meeting place in London in the 17th and 18th centuries, famous as the original site of the London Stock Exchange.

Jonathan’s coffee house was opened around 1680 by Jonathan Miles in Change Alley, or Exchange Alley, in the City of London. By 1694, Jonathan’s was one of a few coffee houses where clients could meet stockbrokers and obtain prices. But in 1696, several patrons were implicated in a plot to assassinate William III, and it was thought to be associated with the ‘Popish’ Plots.

One broker, John Castaing, used the coffee house to post the prices of stocks and commodities in a list titled ‘The Course of the Exchange and Other Things’ in 1698. That year, dealers expelled from the Royal Exchange for rowdiness migrated to Jonathan’s and Garraway’s.

Jonathan’s was described in The Anatomy of Exchange Alley’, a pamphlet by Daniel Defoe in 1719. It was the scene of a number of critical events in the history of share trading, including the South Sea Bubble and the panic of 1745, and the London securities market was working from Jonathan’s by 1748.

Jonathan’s was destroyed by fire that year but was rebuilt. A club of 150 brokers and jobbers was formed in 1761 to trade stocks. The club built its own building In 1773 in Sweeting’s Alley, which was dubbed the New Jonathan’s. It was later renamed the Stock Exchange, and is now the London Stock Exchange.

xxx (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

While I was in Change Alley, I failed to find the site of Garraway’s Coffee House. Its original proprietor, Thomas Garraway, was said to be the first person in England to sell tea before he opened his coffeehouse. The Hudson’s Bay Company held its first sale of furs at the coffee house in 1671.

Daniel Defoe wrote of it being frequented by wealthy traders from the City, and Charles Dickens makes many references to Garraway’s in his writings. Garraway’s was also famous as a sandwich and drinking room, and it was said the sandwich-maker spent two hours preparing each day’s food.

All three coffeehouses that I went in search of last week – Jamaica, Jonathan’s and Garraway’s – and many more have given their names to streets on the Coffee Hall estate in Milton Keynes: Jamaica is a laneway or passage off Jonathans, but with no street sign; there is Jonathans [sic] and Jonathans Court that provides sheltered housing; while Garraway’s is an appropriate name in Milton Keynes as Robert Hooke (1635-1703), who was in Garraway’s almost every day while he worked as Wren’s surveyor in London after the Great Fire, was also the architect of Saint Mary Magdalene Church, Willen.

I was also in Change Alley looking for some 19th century connections with the Comerford family. But that’s another story from London for another day, hopefully.

xxx (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Remembering the Battle of Cable Street and its significance 90 years later

The Battle of Cable Street … fought 90 years ago and commemorated in a mural on the side of on the side of Saint George’s Town Hall in Cable Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I have stayed twice in the East End of London in the past decade, staying on both occasions at the Royal Foundation of Saint Katharine, which is built around the old Georgian vicarage of Saint James in Ratcliffe.

The Battle of Cable Street made that part of the East End famous 90 years ago on this day, 4 October 1936, and the events of that day not only shaped the identity of the East End but are also worth recalling today as the far-right is on the rise again, threatening life in cities and towns, ports and suburbs.

The old vicarage at Saint Katharine’s faces out towards Cable Street, which runs through the heart of Tower Hamlets, from Limehouse to the edge of London’s financial district, the City of London.

Cable Street runs parallel to, and south of, the Docklands Light Railway and Commercial Road, and north of The Highway. The area is close to Wapping and Shadwell Basin to the south, Tower Hill to the west, and Whitechapel and Stepney to the north. Because many Londoners define where they live by the nearest station, the Cable Street area is often known as Shadwell.

In the past, Stepney was divided into four hamlets – Ratcliffe, Limehouse, Poplar and Mile End – and the northern part of the hamlet of Ratcliffe, where the 17th century Kilkenny-born mapmaker Nicholas Comberford (1600-1673) lived, is between Shadwell and Limehouse.

A view of Cable Street looking east towards Butcher Row and Saint Katharine’s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Each time I stayed at Saint Katharine’s, I walked the length of Cable Street through the East End, towards the City of London.

When Saint Katharine’s moved back to the East End in the 1940s, the first Master appointed after the move was Father St John Groser (1890-1966), who had been the Rector of Saint George-in-the-East, on Canon Street Road off Cable Street

He was an Anglican priest and a prominent Christian socialist. He was said to be ‘the best-known priest in the East End’ and Kenneth Leech said that he was ‘one of the most significant Christian socialist figures in 20th century Britain’. He took part in the Battle of Cable Street in 1936, and had his nose broken by a police baton.

Cable Street started as a rope walk or straight path where hemp ropes were twisted along its length into ships’ ropes or cables. These cables supplied ships anchored nearby in the Pool of London, between London Bridge and Wapping and Rotherhithe.

Until Victorian times, the present-day Cable Street had different names for each of its sections, including Cable Street, Knock Fergus, New Road, Back Lane, Blue Gate Fields, Sun Tavern Fields, and Brook Street. The whole central area of present-day Cable Street was named after Saint George-in-the-East Church and Saint George-in-the-East parish.

Up to the 1950s, Cable Street had a reputation for cheap lodgings, brothels, drinking inns and opium dens. In 1868, the Dublin-born Dr Thomas Barnardo (1845-1905) opened his first home for destitute children nearby in Stepney Causeway.

The Battle of Cable Street took place 90 years ago, on Sunday 4 October 1936, when local communities clashed with police who were protecting a planned fascist march in Cable Street in the heart of the Jewish East End.

Local Jewish groups and residents, along with trade unionists, Labour groups, socialists, Communists, anarchists and local Irish organisations, decided to take a stand against a planned march through the East End by Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists.

Mosley planned to goose-step thousands of his marchers dressed in uniforms like those of Mussolini’s Blackshirts through the East End, which then had a large Jewish population. Despite the strong likelihood of violence, the government hesitated about banning the march. A large police escort was provided in a bid to block anti-fascist protesters from disrupting the march.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews denounced the march as antisemitic and urged Jewish people to stay away. The Communist Party, under the leadership of Phil Piratin, was one of the leaders of the opposition forces.

The anti-fascist groups set up roadblocks in an attempt to prevent the march from taking place. The barricades were set up near the junction with Christian Street, towards the west end of Cable Street. About 20,000 anti-fascist demonstrators turned out, only to be met by 6,000 police, who attempted to clear the road to allow 2,000-3,000 fascists to march.

The demonstrators fought back with sticks, rocks, chair legs and other improvised weapons. Rubbish, rotten vegetables and the contents of chamber pots were thrown at the police by women from the doors and windows of houses along Cable Street. A bus was overturned and used as a barricade, Mosley’s car was attacked with bricks, and hand-to-hand fighting broke out on the surrounding streets.

After a series of running battles that day, Mosley appeared to climb down and agreed to abandon his march, claiming he now wanted to prevent bloodshed. The fascist marchers were dispersed towards Hyde Park and the police then attacked the counter-demonstrators. About 150 of them were arrested, although some escaped, and several members of the police were also arrested by demonstrators. Around 175 people were injured, including police, women and children.

Many of the arrested demonstrators reported they had been treated harshly by the police. Most were charged with the minor offence of obstructing police and fined £5, but several of the leaders were found guilty of affray and sentenced to three months hard labour.

Jewish figures from the East End in a work by Dan Jones in the corridors of the Royal Foundation of Saint Katharine (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Two days after the Battle, Mosley was married in Joseph Goebbels’s drawing room, with Hitler as his special guest. The Battle of Cable Street was a major factor leading to the passage of the Public Order Act 1936, which required police consent for political marches and forbade the wearing of political uniforms in public. It provided a short-term boost for Mosley’s fascists but eventually proved to be a significant moment in their decline in the years immediately before World War II.

Piratin was one of the heroes of the day. In 1937, he became the first Communist elected to Stepney Borough Council, and in 1945 he was elected as the Communist MP for Mile End.

Beatty Orwell, who took part in the counter-fascist protests was then a 19-year-old. She went on to be the Mayor of Tower Hamlets and served as councillor for 10 years in the 1970s and 1980s. She is now a great-grandmother 18 times over.

In the 1980s, a large mural depicting scenes from the battle was painted on the side of Saint George’s Town Hall in Cable Street, immediately west of Shadwell station and next to Library Place. This building was originally the vestry hall for the parish and later the town hall of Stepney Borough Council.

Little is recognisable from that period on today’s Cable Street, apart from the faded street signs. Cable Street is now home to a large South Asian community, a cycle route to the City, and some parts of it look as though they are becoming up-and-coming residential areas for young hipsters.

At a rally ten years ago to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, the speakers included 100-year-old Dublin-born Max Levitas, a veteran of the battle, a Communist councillor in Stepney for 15 years, and still active then in political causes. He died at the age of 103 on 2 November 2018 after a life of political activism fighting for housing for the poor and for social justice. He was buried in Rainham Jewish Cemetery.

His brother, Maurice (‘Morry’) Lavitas, was a veteran of the Connolly Column in the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. He took part in the commemoration of the Connolly Column in Liberty Hall, Dublin, in 1991, when he was chosen to read out the list of members. He also attended a ceremony hosted by the Lord Mayor of Dublin in the Mansion House in 1997 to honour the surviving Irish members of the International Brigade. He died in London in 2001.

Their father Harry fled from Lithuania and their mother Leah from Latvia in 1913, both escaping the antisemitic pogroms of Tsarist Russia. They met in Dublin and were married in the Camden Street Synagogue. However, on the other side of Europe, Harry’s sister Sara was burnt to death along with fellow-villagers in the synagogue of Akmeyan, and Leah’s sister Rachel was killed with her family by the Nazis in Riga.

Levitas House on Jubilee Street, new flats in Stepney Green in 2020, are a fitting memory and tribute to Max Levitas, the Dublin-born hero of the Battle of Cable Street and a veteran political activist. But the most fitting tribute to the Levitas brothers and the heroes of Cable Street 90 years ago is to continue to resist the far-right which is on the rise again.

My first visit to Cable Street came immediately after visiting Auschwitz, Birkenau and the Old Jewish Quarter of Kraków. In a time when we are seeing the rise of political extremism and racism not only in Britain but throughout Europe, and holding a tight grip on political power in the US, it is good to be reminded of the courage and resilience of people who stood against the rise of fascism in years immediately before World War II.

Part of the mural at Saint George’s Town Hall commemorating the Battle of Cable Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A visit to Islington in search of street names including Quemerford Road and possible Comerford links

Visiting Quemerford Road in Islington this week in search of links with the Quemerford and Comerford family names (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Islington, an inner-city area in north London, is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields and Regent’s Canal, and encompassing the area around the busy High Street, Upper Street, Essex Road and Southgate Road to the east.

Islington is known for left-wing and radical politics, and the local MPs are Jeremy Corbyn ( Islington North) and Emily Thornberry (Islington South and Finsbury).

I was in Islington briefly earlier this week because I have long been intrigued by the name of Quemerford Road. Despite the strong links over the centuries between the Comerford family in Kilkenny, Wexford and Waterford and the Comberford family of Comberford family of Comberford Hall near Lichfield and Tamworth in Staffordshire, the name Comerford actually derives from Quemerford, a small village that is now part of Calne in Wiltshire.

The first member of the family using the name of Quemerford village was Bartholomew de Quemerford, who was living 800 years ago, ca 1230-1240. By the early 14th century, Philip of Cummerford or Philip de Quemerford and his family were living in Co Kilkenny, and the spelling Quemerford continued to be used in the family in Kilkenny, Wexford and Waterford until the late 16th century.

As I caught the underground from King’s Cross to Caledonian Road to visit Islington earlier this week, I wanted to find out whether the name of Quemerford Road was linked with the early family members or was associated with Quemerford in Wiltshire.

Quemerford Road in Islington … given its name by Lord Islington in December 1911 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Mediaeval Islington was a part of the estates of the Bishop of London and the Dean and Chapter of Saint Paul’s Cathedral. The first recorded church, Saint Mary’s, was built in the 12th century and was replaced in the 15th century. A greatest expansion in housing transformed the whole parish the 19th century. The population was 10,000 in 1801, but by 1891 it had expanded to almost 320,000.

At first, large well-built houses and fashionable squares attracted clerks, artisans and professionals to Islington. However, from the mid-19th century the poor were being displaced by clearances in inner London to build new railway stations and goods yards. Many of the displaced people moved to Islington, where houses became homes to many families, and Islington moved from being attractive for the ‘better off’ and became ‘unfashionable’.

Locations in Islington appear in many works by Charles Dickens, including: Oliver Twist (1837-1839), where Mr Brownlow’s house is in Pentonville, and several scenes are set in Islington; David Copperfield (1849-1850), in which Wilkins Micawber lives in City Road; and Bleak House (1852-1853), where William Guppy lives in Pentonville.

The completion of the Victoria line and the redevelopment of Angel tube station created the conditions for developers to renovate many early Victorian and Georgian townhouses in Islington and to build new developments. But Islington fell into a long decline, and by the mid-20th century it was largely run-down and a by-word for urban poverty.

The remaining Georgian terraces were rediscovered by middle-class families from the 1960s on. Many houses were rehabilitated, and the area became newly fashionable with gentrification. The new residents included people who were central in the New Labour movement, including Tony Blair before his 1997 general election victory. According to The Guardian in 2006, ‘Islington is widely regarded as the spiritual home of Britain's left-wing intelligentsia.’

Islington is the most densely populated borough in the UK, with a density of 138.7 people per hectare, compared to an average of 52.0 for London. It is a diverse district with private houses and apartments not far from social housing in neighbouring wards such as Finsbury and Clerkenwell to the south, Bloomsbury and King’s Cross to the west, and Highbury to the north-west, and the Hackney districts of De Beauvoir and Old Street to the north-east.

Quemerford Road in Islington takes its name from Quemerford Gate Farm, sold by Lord Islington in 1914 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Quemerford Road, Islington, is a small, quiet residential road in London N7, near the Holloway area. It was formed and named at the end of 1911 from a section of what was previously Widdenham Road, which in turn dates from 1906. The street was named after Quemerford, a small village on the outskirts of Calne in West Wiltshire.

According to local records and local history, this specific portion of Widdenham Road was re-designated as Quemerford Road in December 1911. It connects Biddestone Road, Stock Orchard Crescent and Widdenham Road, all of which were part of the wider residential development of the Holloway and Barnsbury fringes of Islington in the early 20th century.

The name of Quemerford Road was formalised when the local council approved an order of the London County Council to rename ‘the street leading out of Stock Orchard Crescent.’

But I learned that the cluster of names of Quemerford Road, Stock Orchard Crescent, Widdenham Road, Hillmarton Road, Beacon Hill and Biddestone Road all come from places in Wiltshire and all were suggested by John Poynder Dickson Poynder (1866-1936), 1st Baron Islington, who was MP for Chippenham (1892-1910) in Wiltshire and owned much property in both Chippenham and Islington.

Widdenham Road in Islington once extended through to Quemerford Road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Quemerford Gate Farm belonged to the Street family in the 18th century. It was bought by 1774 by the Revd James Mayo, Vicar of Avebury, and by the early 19th century it belonged to Thomas Poynder, lord of Hilmarton Manor. Quemerford Gate Farm descended with Hilmarton Manor and Upper Whitley farm in the Poynder family until 1914, when it was sold by John Dickson Poynder, Lord Islington.

Hilmarton is a village in North Wiltshire, between the towns of Calne and Wootton Bassett.

Stock and Stockley are immediately west of Quemerford and the Poynder family owned Stock Orchard Farm from 1822 or 1823. By 1885, the farmhouse at Stock Orchard had been demolished and all the buildings of Stock Orchard Farm had been demolished by the late 20th century.

Biddestone is a village 3 or 4 miles west of Chippenham. Widdenham is a small, isolated rural locality within the civil parish of Colerne and near Box in the Wiltshire.

Biddestone Road off Quemerford Road in Islington takes its name from Biddestone, a village near Chippenham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Lord Islington, John Poynder Dickson-Poynder (1866-1936), who gave the names of Quemerford and other places in Wiltshire to these streets in Islington, was a Conservative and then a Liberal politician, and was the Governor of New Zealand in 1910-1912.

He was born John Poynder Dickson on the Isle of Wight 160 years ago on 31 October 1866, the son of Rear Admiral John Bourmaster Dickson and Sarah Matilda (née Poynder) Dickson, and was educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford. He was still only 17 In 1884 when he succeeded to the title of baronet given to the Dickson family in 1802 for their naval exploits.

When he succeeded to his maternal uncle’s property four years later, he added the additional surname of Poynder in 1888 and became known as Sir John Poynder Dickson-Poynder. The Poynder estates in Wiltshire included a farm in Quemerford, Hilmarton near Calne, and Hartham near Corsham.

His wife Anne Beauclerk Dundas (1869-1958), was a granddaughter of Robert Cornelis Napier (1810-1890), Baron Napier of Magdala, Viceroy of India and Governor of Gibraltar, whose military career included the Anglo-Sikh wars and the Indian Mutiny in India, the Opium Wars in China, and British invasions of Abyssinia (Ethiopia).

Dickson-Poynder became High Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1890. He was MP for Chippenham in 1892-1910 elected first as Conservative, but then joining the Liberals in 1905. He also was a member of London County Council (1898-1904). As a captain in the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, he went to South Africa in March 1900 during the Second Boer War. Later he was aide-de-camp to Lord Methuen, who lived at Corsham Court in Wiltshire. He was decorated with the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in 1900, and later was an honorary major in the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry.

Dickson was Governor of New Zealand in 1910-1912. On his appointment he was made a peer with the title of Baron Islington of Islington, and as Lord Islington he was asked to name some of the streets in Islington, including Quemerford Road, drawing on the names of his properties near Calne in Wiltshire.

Lord Islington was the last Governor of New Zealand to hold the title before it was changed to Governor-General. He was made a KCMG and Privy Counsellor in 1911, and in 1912 became President of the Royal Commission on the Public Services of India.

During World War I, he held minor government positions as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies (1914-1915), and Under-Secretary of State for India (1915-1918). He was given higher grades of knighthood in 1913 (GCMG) and 1926 (GBE).

Lord Islington died 90 years ago on 6 December 1936 aged 70 at Hyde Park Gardens, London, and was buried at Hilmarton, Wiltshire. His titles of baron and baronet died out with his death, but the names he gave to tree-lined suburban streets in Islington, including Quemerford Road, survive to this day.

The name of Quemerford Road still survives 90 years after Lord Islington died in 1936 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 147, Friday 2 October 2026

‘Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me’ (Luke 10: 16) … listening ears in street art on Tottenham Court Road, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XV,II 27 September). Later this morning, I expect to sing with the choir of Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church at a funeral Mass in Stony Stratford.

In the Jewish calendar, Shemini Atseret or Shemini Atzeret (שְׁמִינִי עֲצֶרֶת) begins this evening (2 October) and ends at nightfall tomorrow (3 October). Shemini Atzeret is an intimate, sacred Jewish holiday on the 22nd day of Tishrei that immediately follows the seven days of Sukkot.

But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘They would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes’ (Luke 10: 13) … could the disciples have expected the same rejection in Galilean towns and in Phoenician towns? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 10: 13-16 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 13 ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But at the judgement it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum,

will you be exalted to heaven?
No, you will be brought down to Hades.

16 ‘Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.’

‘Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me’ (Luke 10: 16) … the Ear of Dionysius, near Syracuse in Sicily, where legend says the tyrant Dionysius I eavesdropped on prisoners (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

We have been reading in Saint Luke’s Gospel this week how Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem, and a Samaritan village had refused to welcome his messengers (Luke 9: 51-62). But Christ rebuked James and John for their response to this rejection, and he then sent out 70 (or 72) disciples on a mission of healing and proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom of God.

In this morning’s readings, Christ tells the Seventy to expect but not to be dejected when they meet hostility, and to leave rejection to God’s own judgment and God’s own time.

The term ‘woe’ (Greek: ου̉̀αὶ, ouai) is often used in prophetic literature to express divine displeasure and impending judgment, and it appears frequently in prophetic writings, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and in Christ’s teachings.

Could the disciples could have expected to face rejection in these familiar Galilean town or even similar rejections in the Phoenician towns of Tyre and Sidon?

Chorazin was about 3 km (two miles) north of the Sea of Galilee, and archaeological excavations suggests the small town had a thriving Jewish community. Bethsaida, on the north-east shore of the Sea of Galilee, was the hometown of apostles Peter, Andrew and Philip, and the town where Jesus healed a blind man (Mark 8: 22-26). Capernaum is often called Jesus’ own city (Matthew 9: 1), it served as the centre for his Galilean ministry, and he taught and healed in the synagogue there.

Tyre and Sidon were ancient Phoenician coastal cities, known for their wealth and maritime trade. Prophets often denounced them for their pride and wickedness (Ezekiel 26-28, Isaiah 23). Sodom was infamous for its wickedness and destroyed by God in the time of Abraham (Genesis 19), and became a byword for divine judgment and extreme sinfulness among Jews and Christians.

But Jesus and the disciples often retreated to Tyre and Sidon, the Syrophoenician woman in Tyre begged for healing for her daughter (Matthew 15: 21-28; Mark 7: 24-37), and the deaf man was healed in Sidon (Mark 7: 31-36).

The woes serve as both a lament and as a warning, expressing sorrow over the cities’ current state and educating those who are listening about the future consequences of such a state.

They are a challenge too to think of how the very threats we face in life are not always the ones we fear, and those who offer us comfort and support in life may be those we least expect to offer it.

‘Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me’ (Luke 10: 16)) … part of a sculpture in St Pancras International Station in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 2 October 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 27 September to 3 October 2026 (pp 42-43), is ‘Power of Language’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a reflection by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 2 October 2026) invites us to pray:

Lord God, bless the Anglican Church in Sri Lanka as it brings Tamil, Singala, and English communities together in worship. We thank you for this amazing example of unity in diversity.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Lord, we pray that your grace
may always precede and follow us,
and make us continually to be given to all good works;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious God,
you call us to fullness of life:
deliver us from unbelief
and banish our anxieties
with the liberating love of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

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Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 143, Monday 28 September 2026

Jesus … took a little child and put it by his side (Luke 9: 47) … a window in the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and this week began with the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVII). Later this morning I plan to meet a long-standing friend in London, and tomorrow is Michaelmas, the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels (29 September).

Before today begins and before I set off for London, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

The Preaching of the Kingdom of God … an icon in the Lady Chapel in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 9: 46-50 (NRSVA):

46 An argument arose among them as to which one of them was the greatest. 47 But Jesus, aware of their inner thoughts, took a little child and put it by his side, 48 and said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me; for the least among all of you is the greatest.’

49 John answered, ‘Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not follow with us.’ 50 But Jesus said to him, ‘Do not stop him; for whoever is not against you is for you.’

‘Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me’ (Luke 9: 48) … a window in Saint Mary’s Church, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Today’s lectionary reading for the Eucharist is Saint Luke’s account of a story we also hear in two other Gospels (see Mark 9: 30-37; Matthew 18: 1-14).

In Saint Matthew’s version of this story, Christ tells us: ‘Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven … it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost’ (verses 10-14).

The disciples are arguing with one another about who is the greatest. Christ tells them not to seek position or prestige.

Then, one of the Twelve, John, complains that someone who is not part of their inner circle has been casting out demons in Christ’s name. But did the disciples welcome him? Did they praise him for bringing comfort to distressed people and for restoring them to a good quality of life?

Christ now rebukes the disciples for attempting to stop this exorcist who is curing in his name, a reminder that that God can work through those who are not followers of Christ.

Instead of being smug among themselves, arguing about who among them was the greatest, the disciples should have been like this man, bringing comfort to those who were in trouble, looking after those who were thirsty both physically and spiritually.

I worked for almost 30 years as a journalist with The Irish Times. The Revd Stephen Hilliard, a former colleague there who was ordained a priest in the Church of Ireland a few years before me, was visiting me one evening, when I asked him what the difference was between the two – being a journalist and being a priest. With a wry grin, he told me: ‘Not much. I continue to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.’

Perhaps not in so many words, but in this Gospel reading Christ tells the disciples that they should be afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted.

At the end of last year (2025), an estimated 45 million children under the age of 18 were forcibly displaced globally due to conflict, violence, persecution, and human rights violations, according to UN data. They include 32.7 million internally displaced children and over 19 million refugee and asylum-seeking children.

In the year to June 2026, 4,275 applications for asylum were received in the UK from unaccompanied children, making up 6% of total asylum applications. The UNHCR estimates that 2.4 million children were born into refugee life between 2018 and 2025, equivalent to some 338,000 children per year, meaning that their parents fled and became refugees before they were born.

All children in these situations and these dilemmas are innocent. There is no such thing as a child being the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time. All children should feel safe, in all places, at all times.

But we need to move from Victorian Sunday School images of the children being brought to Jesus, and ask how he would hear the voices of children today and how he would respond to those who plot to do them harm.

Would Christ challenge us to hear the cries of children in the refugee camps, the children needing humanitarian assistance, the children in the slums, in the sweat shops and in the brothels, to hear the cries of children suffering behind the bedroom doors of respectability?

‘Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me’ (Luke 9: 48) … a window by Alfred Bell of Clayton and Bell in Saint John-at-Hampstead (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 28 September 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 27 September to 3 October 2026 (pp 42-43), is ‘Power of Language’. This theme was introduced yesterday with a reflection by Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 28 September 2026) invites us to pray in these words:

Lord God, help us listen carefully and speak with care, so our words build understanding and bring life.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Lord, we pray that your grace
may always precede and follow us,
and make us continually to be given to all good works;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Gracious God,
you call us to fullness of life:
deliver us from unbelief
and banish our anxieties
with the liberating love of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Michael and All Angels:

Everlasting God,
you have ordained and constituted
the ministries of angels and mortals in a wonderful order:
grant that as your holy angels always serve you in heaven,
so, at your command,
they may help and defend us on earth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Jesus … took a little child and put it by his side (Luke 9: 47) … a detail in the window in the Comberford Chapel in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Making music with Handel and Hendrix with blue plaques in harmony on two houses in Mayfair

The Handel Hendrix House on Brook Street in Mayfair (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Who are the inseparable pairs in your mind? Morecambe and Wise? Laurel and Hardy? The Two Ronnies? French and Saunders? Simon and Garfunkel? Lennon and McCartney? Flanders and Swann?

Without prompting, would you have suggested Handel and Hendrix?

Handel Hendrix House (previously Handel & Hendrix in London and the Handel House Museum) is a London museum dedicated to the lives and works of the German-born baroque composer George Frideric Handel and the American rock singer-guitarist Jimi Hendrix. They lived lived next door to each other at 25 and 23 Brook Street, Mayfair, separated only by walls and a mere 2½ centuries or so.

I was writing the week before last about blue plaques (5 September 2026), and this unlikely pairing of composers are commemorated with blue plaques on the façades of the neighbouring houses that now form Handel Hendrix House, previously known as Handel & Hendrix in London and the Handel House Museum.

Handel made his home in London in 1712 and eventually became a British citizen in 1727. He lived at 25 Brook Street from 1723 until he died there in 1759. Almost all his works after 1723, including many of his operas, oratorios and ceremonial music, were composed and partially rehearsed in the house, where he had a variety of keyboard instruments, including harpsichords, a clavichord and a small chamber organ.

Handel moved into 25 Brook Street in 1723, shortly after he had been appointed by George II as composer to the Chapel Royal. The house had been newly built with Nos 23, 27/29 and 31 by George Barnes as part of the planned extension of Brook Street, linking Hanover Square with Grosvenor Square, between 1717 and 1726.

Handel’s immediate neighbours on either side were from the upper middle classes and initially included the MP John Monckton, who later became the first Viscount Galway in 1727.

From the 1730s on, there are references to rehearsals of operas and oratorios at Brook Street by Handel’s friends and fellow musicians. Handel used the house for entertainment, composition and rehearsal, and for business.

After Handel died in 1759, his musical instruments passed to John Christopher Smith and his son of the same name, while the tenancy of the house and Handel’s clothing passed to his servant John Du Burk. The house remained largely unchanged until 1905, when CJ Charles converted the house into a shop, removing the original façade and the internal dividing walls. It was bought by the Co-operative Insurance Society in 1971.

Although the house is a Grade I listed building, its survival was threatened when planning permission was sought in 1982 to demolish five Grade II listed buildings, including Handel’s house.

The Handel Museum Trust Fund was formed in the early 1990s with the object of creating a Handel museum at 25 Brook Street, and after a long period of negotiations and extensive renovation work, 25 Brook Street opened as the Handel House Museum 25 years ago on 8 November 2001.

The house has been restored to look as it did when Handel lived there for 36 years from 1723 to 1759. It is a typical early 18th-century London terrace house, with a basement, three main storeys and an attic, and Handel was the first resident. The interiors have been restored to the somewhat spartan style of the Georgian era, using mostly architectural elements from elsewhere, since, apart from the staircase, few of the original interior features survived.

The museum has restored period rooms on the first and second floors of 25 Brook Street and exhibition rooms in No 23, the adjacent house on the terrace. In 2016, the museum expanded to incorporate the upper floors of 23 Brook Street, home of Jimi Hendrix in the late 1960s.

The Handel House Collection Trust has a collection of Handel memorabilia, including the Byrne Collection of several hundred items that were acquired in 1998.

The museum incorporates the upper floors of its neighbour at 23 Brook Street, the home of the American rock singer-guitarist Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) in 1968-1969. These rooms were used for temporary exhibitions and events, but after fundraising, these and the rest of the rooms from the Hendrix apartment were opened to the public in February 2016 as ‘Handel and Hendrix in London’. One exhibit is a collection of Hendrix’s old records.

Both houses have blue plaques for their respective occupants. The blue plaque to George Frideric Handel at 25 Brook Street reads: ‘George Frideric Handel 1685-1759 Composer lived in this house from 1723 and died here’. The blue plaque to Jimi Hendrix at 23 Brook Street reads: ‘Jimi Hendrix 1942-1970 Guitarist and Songwriter lived here 1968-1969’.

The house is open to the public five days a week, Wednesday to Sunday. The museum has a lively events programme including live music, changing exhibitions, lectures and children’s educational events. Several performances of Baroque music are staged each month.

Romeo and Juliet? Burton and Taylor? Plato and Socrates? Mutt and Jeff? Tom and Jerry? Holmes and Watson? Watson and Crick? Mapp and Lucia?

But Handel and Hendrix? Well, that was a first for me in Mayfair this summer.

There are blue plaques to George Frideric Handel on the façade of 25 Brook Street and to Jimi Hendrix at 23 Brook Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

A house on Bloomsbury Square that commemorates five leading figures in the field of education

No 2-3 Bloomsbury Square was built in 1887 for the College of Preceptors (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Bloomsbury House at 2-3 Bloomsbury Square, on the south side of Bloomsbury Square was built in 1887 for the College of Preceptors. The building is familiar to many for its façade with the relief busts in roundels beneath the windows on the first and second floors of five pioneering figures in the field of education and teaching.

But as I looked up recently, I wonder how many passers-by can identify these five eminent figures who stare down on the people of Bloomsbury below, or who can tell what is a preceptor.

Bloomsbury is bounded by Tottenham Court Road, New Oxford Street, Euston Road and Woburn Place and Southampton Row to the east. Bloomsbury Square was first laid out in the early 1660s for Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton. The Russell family owned extensive estates in London by the end of the 17th century, and the Bloomsbury Estate became part of the Bedford Estate in 1723. The Bloomsbury Estate was developed in several phases, from the 1660s to the 1850s.

The five figures on the façade are an eminent educationalist and the busts represent: Johann Pestalozzi, John Milton, Friedrich Froebel, John Locke and Thomas Arnold. The College of Preceptors, now called the Chartered College of Teachers, moved out a few years ago and the building has been restored as a suite of meeting rooms for the Bonnington Hotel group.

The College of Preceptors was a Victorian institution founded to improve the standard and status of teaching by providing proper qualifications. It was founded in 1846 by a group including Joseph Payne, its first professor of education, and the formidable Frances Buss, headmistress of the North London Collegiate School.

The College of Preceptors began in 1846 when a group of private schoolmasters from Brighton met to discuss the their concerns about standards in the teaching profession. A committee formed in early 1846 was chaired by Henry Stein Turrell (1815-1863), principal of the Montpelier House School in Brighton. After meetings in London and Brighton, a general meeting in London in 1846 was attended by 300 schoolmasters attended and 60 members were enrolled.

The College of Preceptors was incorporated with a royal charter from Queen Victoria in 1849. The college created a system for the formal examination and qualification of secondary school teachers. It was one of the first bodies to examine and provide certificates for secondary school pupils.

The college helped to establish education as a subject at university level in the 1870s, and Joseph Payne was appointed as the first Professor of Education in 1873. The right to appoint Professors of Education is recognised in the college’s current royal charter.

In the 1950s the college pioneered management training schemes for teachers and school administration courses. A supplemental charter in 1998 changed the name to the College of Teachers, and a further supplemental charter in 2017 changed the society to its current name, and permitted granting members the status of Chartered Teacher.

Bloomsbury House, now a Listed Grade 1, was built in 1887. It was designed in a Flemish Renaissance style by the architect Frederick Pinches (1852-1925). His other buildings in London include: Hackney Baths (1894-1897), co-designed with Edward Harnor and later known as Kings Hall Leisure Centre; the Alliance Bank (1884), Regent Street; and Parr’s Bank, Stratford (1897-1898), now Burrows House.

The three-storey, three-bay house, with a basement and attic, house was built in red brick with enriched ashlar dressings, a steeply pitched, hipped slate roof with an elaborate pedimented ashlar dormer centre piece carried up with carved escutcheons.

The deeply recessed semi-elliptical central doorway had a moulded reveal and a double panelled door approached by steps.

There are two-light mullion and transom windows. The central three-light bowed oriel window on the first floor has an enriched apron and the dado of the second floor window above is carried on a round oriel parapet. There are composite pilasters defining the window bays of each floor carried in dados with carved, foliated panels and with busts centrally in each bay.

The centre bay projects slightly between paired pilasters with a continuous arcaded frieze capped by segmental pediments. There are arcaded parapets on the outside bays, and the windows on the second floor have arched heads.

On the façade are five roundels, under the windows on the first and second floor. Each displays a relief bust of a pioneering figure in education. The five famous educators who stare down onto Bloomsbury from two rows of roundels on the façade are:

Top left: Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827), Swiss educationalist and author

Top centre: John Milton (1608-1674), poet, polemicist and ‘acrimonious and surly republican’

Top right: Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852), German pedagogue, pioneer of modern education and inventor of the kindergarten

Bottom left: John Locke (1632-1704), empiricist philosopher, known as the ‘father of liberalism’, and at one time a political refugee in the Netherlands

Bottom right: Thomas Arnold (1795-1842), headmaster of Rugby School

Inside the building, the geometrical staircase has a wrought-iron balustrade staircase and there are stained glass windows portraying the founders.

The original preceptors elected against buying land to build their college, and chose a 99-year lease because it was a cheaper option. But when the lease ran out, land in Bloomsbury was worth a premium and they had to relinquish their premises. The College of Teachers moved into the Institute of Education, part of University College London, in Bedford Way in 2003.

The original terms of the lease of 2 Bloomsbury Square insisted that the building remained a teaching establishment. The auditors Coopers & Lybrand (now PWC) adopted it as their training centre. The building was restored in 2007 and is now run by the Bonnington Hotel group and is rented out for meetings and as an events space.

The five figures depicted in the roundels on the façade: Johann Pestalozzi, John Milton, Friedrich Froebel, John Locke and Thomas Arnold (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

A series of 11 heraldic paintings in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching, tells the stories of four dioceses

Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching ... painted heraldic decorations represent the Diocese of Kuching, the dioceses in the Church of the Province of South East Asia and dioceses that are part of the story of Anglican missions in the region (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Above the choir and chapter stalls in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching, a series of nine painted heraldic decorations represent the Diocese of Kuching, its partner dioceses in the Church of the Province of South East Asia, and four other dioceses that are part of the story of Anglican missions in the region.

In addition, the cathedral also displays the coats of arms of both the State of Sarawak and the Federation of Malaysia.

It is difficult to find technically correct heraldic descriptions for some of these coats-of-arms, and in some cases they have been adopted without any heraldic authority. But I am grateful to Mark Scott, Somerset Herald at the College of Arms in London, who has kindly helped me to identify and describe many of these heraldic displays.

The coats of arms of Church of the Province of South East Asia and its four provinces, in a poster the Kuching diocesan offices beside Saint Thomas’s Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

These coats of arms are of interest to specialists in ecclesiastical heraldry and church history. But they also tell part of the story of the relationship of the Anglican Church in Sarawak with the Brooke Rajahs of Sarawak and the short-live British Crown Colony and of the subsequent incorporation of Sarawak into the modern state of Malaysia.

They also tell the story of the relationship between Diocese of Kuching with the neighbouring Anglican dioceses in Malaysia, Singapore and throughout South-East Asia.

The coat of arms of Church of the Province of South East Asia above the chapter and choir stalls in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Church of the Province of South East Asia, made up of four dioceses – Sabah, Sarawak, Singapore and West Malaysia – was formed 30 years ago in 1996 as the 37th Province in the Anglican Communion. It is self-governing, self-supporting, self-propagating and truly indigenous.

At first, the See of Calcutta provided episcopal supervision for Anglican work throughout much of south and east Asia, and beyond, as far as Australia and New Zealand. The first Anglican church in what is now Malaysia was on Penang island, where the Church of Saint George the Martyr, was built in 1819 and consecrated by Thomas Fanshaw Middleton, first Bishop of Calcutta.

In time, because it was so widespread, the Diocese of Calcutta became impractical, and new dioceses were formed. As a result, for example, the Diocese of Australia was formed in 1836 and the Diocese of Singapore, Labuan and Sarawak was formed in 1855 as a missionary diocese under the oversight of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Today the Church of the Province of South East Asia covers a geographical area of 329,800 sq km with a population: 23.8 million. The coat of arms of the province, which appears to be without a full, technical heraldic description, has a white cross on a blue background, that echoes both the Saint Andrew’s cross used by the Diocese of Singapore, which its four quarters or segments may acknowledge the four dioceses that form the province.

The coat of arms of the Diocese of Kuching in the chancel in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Diocese of Kuching:

Francis Thomas McDougall (1817-1886) was the first Bishop of Labuan and Sarawak (1855-1868). He was consecrated bishop in Calcutta on Saint Luke’s Day, 18 October 1855, by Bishop Daniel Wilson of Calcutta, under a commission from Archbishop John Bird Sumner of Canterbury.

His consecration was the first of an English bishop to take place outside Britain and Ireland. He was styled Bishop of Labuan and Sarawak because Labuan was a British territory and Sarawak was not. The Church in the Straits Settlements, including Singapore, Penang and Malacca, was separated from the Diocese of Calcutta in 1869, and placed under the episcopal care of the Bishop of Labuan. This arrangement lasted until 1909, when the Diocese of Singapore was founded.

After the Japanese occupation and World War II, the Diocese of Labuan and the Bishopric of Sarawak were joined into the Diocese of Borneo. The Diocese of Borneo was divided in 1962, forming a new Diocese of Jesselton (Sabah), including Labua, while the rest of the diocese, including Brunei, was reconstituted as the Diocese of Kuching.

The arms of the Diocese of Kuching have inherited elements from the arms granted to the Bishopric of Borneo in 1949 and that were transferred to Kuching in 1964.

They are described in heraldic language or blazoned as: Per pale gules and sable, a cross crosslet fitchy or. This describes a shield that is divided vertically down the middle, red and black, with a gold cross that has three smaller crosses at the top and to the side, and a pointed tip at the end.

At the time of the grant, Sir George Bellew (1899-1993), the Dublin-born Somerset Herald (1926-1950) and later Garter Principal King of Arms (1950-1961), pointed to these arms as an example of how with grants of arms ‘it is still possible to design simple arms without infringing those already in use.’

The coat of arms of the Diocese of Kuching echoes the colours and imagery of the coat of arms of the Brooke family, Rajahs of Sarawak (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The shield incorporates the red and black split design associated with the Brooke family, Rajahs of Sarawak, combined with a gold cross. The dominant colours mirror the historic colours of the Sarawak state flag and the heraldic arms of the Brooke dynasty, founded by James Brooke, the first Rajah of Sarawak.

The coat of arms used by the Brooke dynasty for over a century, from 1841 to 1946, were: Or (gold or yellow), a cross engrailed parted per pale gules (red) and sable (black), charged in fess point with an eastern crown or (gold or yellow); crest: a brock or badger proper (natural colours); motto: Dum Spiro Spero (‘While I Breathe, I hope’).

This blazon describes a gold or yellow shield, with a red and black cross that has wavy edges, surmounted by a crown that was added in 1848. The badger or brock in the crest is a pun alluding to the dynastic surname, and its symbolism is remembered, for example, in the name of the Badger Bar in the Sarawak Club.

The coat of arms of Sir James Brooke, first Rajah of Sarawak, granted by the College of Arms, London, in 1848 (Image: PMostEpic/Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 4.0)

The arms of Sir James Brooke were: or (gold), a cross engrailed per cross indented azure (blue) and sable (black), in the first quarter an estoile of the second (blue); crest: on an eastern crown a brock proper ducally gorged or. Motto: Dum Spiro Spero.

The azure and sable or blue and black colours were abandoned for red and black two years after the succession of his son Sir Charles Johnson Brooke (1868-1917). His achievement was: arms: or (yellow or gold), a cross engrailed parted per pale sable (black) and gules (red); crest: on a wreath of the colours a brock proper; motto: Dum Spiro Spero.

His son, Sir Charles Vyner Brooke (1917-1946), altered the arms by introducing a five-pointed crown, symbolising the five divisions of the kingdom, centred around Kuching, Sri Aman and Simanggang, Sibu, Miri, and Limbang. Shortly before World War II, the engrailed edging of the cross was abandoned and replaced by a simple cross parted per pale.

The simplified coat of arms of the Brooke family as Rajahs of Sarawak (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Sir Charles Brooke abdicated in 1946 after the Japanese occupation (1941-1945), and Sarawak became a British Crown Colony. A new coat of arms was adopted on 10 March 1947: or, on a cross parted per pale sable and gules, charged with a five-pointed eastern crown or.

The arms of the British Crown Colony of Sarawak continued to be used as the state coat of arms when Sarawak formed Malaysia with Malaya, Sabah and Singapore in 1963, and were used until 1973.

The design of the shield also provided the basis for the Sarawak flag used until 1973, and the state flag reverted to these original colours in 1988. At the same time a new state coat of arms was adopted, in which the state flag became the shield, displayed on a hornbill.

The arms of the Diocese of Sabah, first granted to the Diocese of Jesselton, seen in Kuching Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Diocese of Sabah:

The British Colony of North Borneo changed its name to Sabah on 31 August 1963, and joined the Federation of Malaysia as an independent state. The Diocese of Sabah, covering Sabah and Labuan, was formed in 1962 as the Diocese of Jesselton. Originally, it was part of the much larger Diocese of Labuan and its Dependencies, established in 1855. When the Diocese of Singapore was formed out of that earlier diocese in 1909, the area of the present-day Diocese of Sabah fell under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Labuan and Sarawak, which was reorganised as the Diocese of Borneo in 1949.

The Diocese of Borneo was divided in two in 1962, forming the Diocese of Kuching and the Diocese of Jesselton, which was renamed the Diocese of Sabah when Jesselton, the capital city, was renamed Kota Kinabalu in 1967.

The coat of arms of the Diocese of Sabah are the arms of the former Diocese of Jesselton: argent (silver or white), issuant from a base vert (green) thereon three barrulets wavy argent (silver or white) a mountain sable (black), in chief five crosses three and two couped gules (red).

A variation in the colours in the official grant of arms of the Diocese of Sabah, seen in a poster marking the 20th anniversary of the Church of the Province of South-East Asia (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

These arms have some echoes of the arms adopted in 1948 by the former Crown Colony of British North Borneo. The diocesan arms incorporate representations of the South China Sea, with historical connotations of the early Christian missionaries travelling by sea, or of the fields of Sabah, beneath Mount Kinabalu.

However, there are variations in the colours in the official grant of arms, as seen in the chancel in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching, and those used by Diocese of Sabah today.

The coat of arms of the Diocese of Singapore seen in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Diocese of Singapore:

The Diocese of Singapore dates back to 1826, shortly after Singapore was founded by Stanford Raffles and at first the Anglican presence there was under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Calcutta.

Saint Andrew’s Cathedral, Simgapre, was named after the patron saint of Scotland in honour of the Scottish community who first donated to the building fund. Singapore was transferred from the Diocese of Calcutta to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Labuan and Sarawak in 1869, and Saint Andrew’s Cathedral became the cathedral church of the diocese in 1870. It officially became the Diocese of Singapore, Labuan and Sarawak in 1881, and in 1909 Singapore was made a separate diocese covering the Straits Settlements, Peninsular Malaya, Siam (Thailand), Java, Sumatra and the adjacent islands.

It was renamed the Diocese of Singapore and Malaya on 6 February 1960. The diocese was dissolved on 8 April 1970 when it was divided into two new dioceses, the Diocese of Singapore and the Diocese of West Malaysia.

The official grant of arms to the Bishopric of Singapore are blazoned or described in heraldic language as: azure (blue) a saltire argent (white or silver) between four garbs or (gold or yellow), on a chief of the last (gold or yellow) a pastoral staff and a key in saltire purpure (purple).

The principal element in the arms of the Diocese of Singapore is the shield of Saint Andrew, similar to the symbol seen on the flag of Scotland. The four bunches of wheat symbolise the harvest of the mission fields, the crozier is a symbol of episcopal office, the key represents episcopal authority, and the crozier and key are crossed in the shape of Saint Andrew’s saltire.

The emblem the Diocese of West Malaysia displayed in Kuching Cathedral in the style of a diocesan coat of arms (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Diocese of West Malaysia:

A new and independent diocese, the Diocese of West Malaysia, was formed from the Diocese of Singapore and Malaya in 1970, and it was incorporated by an Act of the Malaysian Parliament in 1971. Saint Mary’s Cathedral is beside Independence Square or Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur.

An official formal heraldic blazon for the arms used by the Anglican Diocese of West Malaysia is not found in standard armorial databases, it does not follow traditional heraldic designs and heraldry remains largely unregulated in Malaysia.

However, the arms used by the diocese draws heavily on local symbols and Malaysian cultural motifs seen in the shape and design of the cross and the depiction of a hornbill.

The coat of arms of the Archbishops of Canterbury above the bishop’s throne in Kuching Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Diocese of Canterbury:

The blazon for the coat of arms of the Diocese of Canterbury is: Azure (blue), an archiepiscopal staff or (gold) ensigned with a cross formy or (gold), surmounted of a pallium argent (silver or white) edged and fringed gold, charged with four crosses formy fitchy sable (black).

These are similar to the arms used by the Archbishops of York, Armagh and Dublin. The pallium on all these is a white lamb’s wool band shaped like a ‘Y’ and is an ancient symbol of metropolitan authority.

The coat of arms of the Diocese of London seen in the chancel in Kuching Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Diocese of London:

The Bishop of London historically had responsibility for the administration, oversight, and provision of the Church of England in all British overseas colonies. From the 17th century on, Anglican congregations and chaplaincies in British territories outside England – including North America and the West Indies – were within the remit of the Diocese of London.

After the American Revolution in 1776, the North American mainland colonies left this oversight, leaving only the British West Indies under the London bishop's direct care. To manage expanding global territories, the Church of England began forming separate colonial dioceses starting in 1787 with Nova Scotia, eventually forming 41 distinct overseas dioceses before they gained autonomy by 1863.

The technical heraldic description (blazon) for the coat of arms of the Diocese of London is: gules (red), two swords in saltire proper hilts and pommels or (gold).

This is a red shield, with two swords crossed in an ‘X’ shape or saltire. They represent Saint Paul, who is often depicted in iconography with an up-turned sword. He is the patron saint of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, the seat of the Diocese of London.

The coat of arms of the Diocese of Calcutta seen in Kuching Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Diocese of Calcutta:

The Diocese of Calcutta was formed as an Anglican diocese in 1814. The Bishop of Calcutta was the Metropolitan of India, with a vast geographical province that initially included the entire British empire in India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), British territories across south and south-east Asia and Australia.


From 1863 on, former colonial dioceses were separate from and independent of the Church of England, although, exceptionally, the Archbishop of Canterbury has retained some metropolitan jurisdictions outside England.

The coat of arms of the Diocese of Calcutta is recorded as: Gules (red), a pastoral staff or crozier in bend or (gold), headed argent (silver), surmounted by an open book argent bound or; on a chief indented ermine, two palm fronds in saltire vert (green), debruised with a mitre with infulae or (gold.

This is a red shield, representing holy zeal and martyrdom, with a bishop’s gold crosier placed diagonally across the shield, surmounted by an open Bible.

The coat of arms of the Diocese of Sydney displayed in Kuching Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Diocese of Sydney:

The Diocese of Australia was formed in 1836 and William Grace Broughton became the first Bishop of Australia. The Diocese of New Zealand became a separate diocese in 1841 and the Diocese of Tasmania in 1842. When the Diocese of Australia was divided in 1847 into four separate dioceses – Sydney, Adelaide, Newcastle and Melbourne – Broughton remained as Bishop of Sydney.

The coat of arms of the Diocese of Sydney granted to William Broughton, first Bishop of Sydney, is: azure (blue), four mullets of eight points in cross argent (silver or white). This is a blue shield with four eight-pointed silver stars arranged in the shape of a cross, representing the Southern Cross constellation, with four of its primary stars.

The present coat of arms of Sarawak seen in Kuching Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The arms of Sarawak and Malaysia:

The traditional arms of Sarawak are: Or (gold or yellow), a cross engrailed parted per pale gules (red) and sable (black), charged with an eastern crown or (gold or yellow). Motto: Dum Spiro Spero (‘While I breathe, I hope’).

The arms of the British Crown Colony of Sarawak were based on the arms of the Rajah and were the state coat of arms when Sarawak formed Malaysia with Malaya, Sabah and Singapore in 1963. These arms were used from 1947 to 1973: or (gold or yellow), on a cross parted per pale sable (black) and gules (red), an Eastern crown of the field.

The current coat of arms of Sarawak dates from 31 August 1988. The shield features a symbolic wing-spread kenyalang or rhinoceros hornbill with a shield bearing the state flag. The hornbill’s wings have 13 feathers, which represent the states in Malaysia. The hibiscus represent the Malaysia’s national flower which appears on the right and left sides of the bird’s legs and the hornbill perches on a banner with the words Bersatu, Berusaha, Berbakti (‘Unity, Effort, Service’).

The coat of arms of Malaysia displayed in Kuching Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The coat of arms of Malaysia (Jata Negara Malaysia) retains many of the design elements used in the arms of the Federated Malay States during British colonial rule, and it resembles European heraldic designs. The shield is supported by two tigers for supporters, and the crest is a yellow crescent and a yellow 14-point star representing Islam and the states of Malaysia.

The shield consists of a chief or upper portion and a lower section that is divided in three per pale (longitudinally). The chief is gules (red) charged with five krises (Malay daggers), representing the five former Unfederated Malay States: Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu and Perlis.

The dexter section (the viewer’s left) shows the former coat of arms of Penang; the upper middle section below the chief shows the colours of the Federated Malay States (red, black, white and yellow); while in the lower middle section are three sections representing the new states of Sabah, Singapore and Sarawak which joined the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. In the sinister section (the right side from the viewer’s point of view) is a Malacca tree (Phyllanthus emblica), after which the state was named.

The two tigers supporting the shield are traditional Malay symbols, and were inherited from the earlier armorial ensigns of the Federated Malay States and Federation of Malaya.

The motto, Bersekutu Bertambah Mutu (‘Unity is Strength’), is in both Latin and Jawi script.

The arms of the Diocese of Lichfield, seen on the railway bridge at Upper John Street, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A missing coat of arms:

The inclusion of the arms of Canterbury, London, Calcutta and Sydney affirms the historic links between the Diocese of Kuching and those four other dioceses. But if a fifth diocese was to be represented, I would suggest the Diocese of Lichfield.

The Diocese of Lichfield and the Diocese of Kuching have been linked together since the Lambeth Conference in 1988. But the two were linked before that when the second bishop, Walter Chambers (1870-1881), who was ordained a priest in Lichfield Cathedral by Bishop John Lonsdale of Lichfield in 1849, moved to Borneo to assist Bishop Thomas McDougal, the first Bishop of Borneo. Chambers became Archdeacon of Sarawak in 1868 and became Bishop of Sarawak and the Straits Settlements when McDougal resigned in 1870.

The coat of arms of the iocese of Lichfield are described in heraldic terms in this way: Per pale gules (red) and argent (white) , a cross potent and quadrate (Cross of Saint Chad) between four crosses patée all counterchanged. I like to imagine the per pale or vertical division of the field and the shape of the central cross may have had some incluence on the design of the arms of the Diocese of Kuching.

The coat of arms of the Diocese of Kuching on the lectern in the chapel in the Bishop’s House in Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)