Trevor Randall Beeson OBE AKC FKC (2 March 1926 – 17 October 2023) was a British Anglican clergyman who was Dean of Winchester in the last two decades of the 20th century. He was also a writer, authoring numerous books and working as an ecclesiastical obituarist.[1]
Trevor Beeson | |
---|---|
Dean of Winchester | |
In office 1987–1996 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Trevor Randall Beeson 2 March 1926 Gedling, England |
Died | 17 October 2023 | (aged 97)
Spouse |
Josephine Cope
(m. 1950; died 1997) |
Education | |
Beeson was born in Gedling in 1926.[2] He was educated at King's College London, studied theology at St Boniface College, Warminster, and was ordained in 1952.[3]
He began his career with a curacy in Leadgate, County Durham, after which he was priest in charge of St Chad, Stockton-on-Tees[4] and then on the staff of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square.[5] Following this he was Vicar of Ware, Hertfordshire and Canon Treasurer of Westminster.[6] He served as Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons from 1982 to 1987,[3] before his elevation to the Deanery. He contributed obituaries to The Daily Telegraph and was a columnist for The Guardian.[2] In retirement Beeson wrote a book about his fellow Deans.[7]
In 1976 the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred on Beeson the Lambeth degree of Master of Arts.[3] He was appointed OBE in the 1997 New Year Honours "for services to the Church of England, particularly as Dean of Winchester Cathedral."[8] He was awarded an honorary DLitt degree by Southampton University in 1999.[3]
Beeson was married to the former Josephine Cope from 1950 until her death in 1997; they had two daughters. One of Beeson's daughters, Catherine, married Charles Taylor, future Dean of Peterborough; they met whilst Taylor and Beeson were clergy at Westminster Abbey and married there.[2] Beeson died on 17 October 2023, at the age of 97.[9]