Percy Dearmer
Percival Dearmer (1867–1936) was an English Anglican priest and liturgist best known as the author of The Parson's Handbook, a liturgical manual for Anglican clergy, and as editor of The English Hymnal. A lifelong socialist, he was an early advocate of the public ministry of women (but not their ordination to the priesthood) and concerned with social justice. Dearmer, with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw, is credited with the revival and spread of traditional and medieval English musical forms. His ideas on patterns of worship have been linked to the Arts and Crafts Movement, while The English Hymnal reflects the influence both of artistic and folkloric scholarship and Christian Socialism. At his death, he was a canon of Westminster Abbey, from where he ran a canteen for the unemployed. Early life and ordination Dearmer was born on 27 February 1867 in Kilburn, Middlesex, to an artistic family; his father, Thomas Dearmer, was an artist and drawing instructor. Dearmer attended Streatham School and Westminster School in the early 1880s, before going to a boarding school in Switzerland. From 1886 to 1889 he studied modern history at Christ Church, Oxford, receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1890. He was associated