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History of Science Museum

Photograph (Gelatine Print) of Bishop U. V. Herford, by Lafayette, London, c.1920

Inventory Number 11872


Item type
Object
Provenance
Bequeathed by Anthony (Peter) Riza in 1997.
Primary inscriptions
Printed photographer's label in back of mount.
Other inscriptions
Donor's note on a separate piece of paper reads: 'Donor, Mr A. Riza, was his secretary 1934-35. Photo taken about 1920. Ulric Vernon Herford, - Bishop of Mercia. Consecrated in the Syro-Chaldean Church of South India about 1900. Well known in North Oxford where he lived at Elmswood corner of Lathbury-Woodstock Road. Died August, 1938.'.
Physical material
Paper
Card
Dimensions
Height: 196mm Width: 149mm
Inventory No
11872
Accession Number
1997-19

Description

Gelatine print mounted on card, with card mat (detached). Formal portrait of Bishop U. V. Herford in vestments before an altar, standing full length facing front in the act of giving a blessing, his crook in his rght hand. Together with a manuscript note about it by the donor. For the rest of the bequest see 67623.

Bishop Vernon Herford (1866-1938), originally a Unitarian minister, was an independent (or 'wandering') Catholic bishop, claiming consecration within an archaic Catholic sect in India in 1902, and styling himself Bishop of Mercia and Middlesex and leader of an independent Evangelical Catholic Communion. He himself ordained many independent priests and bishops. He lived in Oxford, and was a noted anti-vivisection campaigner and pacifist. His church building in Oxford was taken over as a Roman Catholic church in 1913, so if that is where he is photographed the approximate date of the photograph should be earlier.