247 

 OBITUARY NOTICE : REV. CANON J. W. HORSLEY, M.A. 



By J. R. i.E B. TOMLIN, M.A. 



It is witli great regret that we record the death of another of our 

 senior members, Canon Horsley, at Kingsdown, near Deal, on 

 November 25th last. 



John William Horsley was the eldest son of the Rev. J. W. Horsley, 

 nephew of the Royal Academician J. C. Horsley, and cousin of 

 Sir Victor Horsley. 



He was born in 1845, educated at King's School, Canterbury, 

 and Pembroke College, Oxford, and ordained in 1870 by Bishop 

 Mackarness at Oxford. 



In 1874 lie went as curate to a church in Shoreditch, and spent 

 most of the rest of his active career in close connexion with the 

 poorest side of London life. He was for about ten years chaplain of 

 Clerkenwell Gaol, vicar of Holy Trinity, Woolwich, for six years, 

 rector of S. Peter's, Walworth, for seventeen years, and in 191 1 

 accepted the living of Detling, near Maidstone. He was a Freemason 

 of high standing and deeply versed in Masonic lore. He devoted 

 much time and energy to a perennial crusade against the overcrowding 

 and insanitary conditions of life amongst the poor, was a constant 

 advocate of country holidays for poor children, and for many years 

 personally conducted parties of parishioners to Meiringen in Switzer- 

 land, where his interest in natural history proved an invaluable asset. 



Horsley was elected a member of our Society on 3rd June, T891, 

 and served as President in 1911-12 : he contributed regularly to the 

 Journal of Conc/iology, mainly short faunistic notes. As a collector 

 he confined his attentions to the Heliddcs, and his shells and cabinets 

 were sold at Stevens' Rooms on October i8th last. 



He married the eldest daughter of Captain Codd, Governor of 

 Clerkenwell Gaol, and leaves twO sons and three daughters surviving. 



The key to his life is contained in a remark he once made that 

 " no man can be a good Christian who is not also a good citizen," and 

 he carried out this principle with a cheery enthusiasm and a persistent 

 optimism that were beyond all praise. 



