T. Pelham Dale

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Thomas Pelham Dale, (1821–1892), Anglo-Catholic ritualist clergyman, most famous for being prosecuted and imprisoned for ritualist practices, was born at Greenwich on 3 April 1821, was brought up in Beckenham, Kent. After attending King's College London, in 1841 Dale went up to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and graduated in 1845. He was elected fellow of his college.

He ordained deacon in 1845 and priest in 1846. He was appointed curate of the Camden Chapel, Camberwell, Surrey. In 1847 he became Rector of St Vedast Foster Lane in the City of London.

With scholarly interests that were scientific as well as theological, Dale was librarian of Sion College in the City of London from 1851 to 1858.

In 1861, he and others founded the North London Deaconesses' Institution based in King's Cross.

Originally an evangelical, Dale came to believe that ritualism was specifically appropriate to deal with the nature of secularism and forces hostile to Christianity of the time. He began to use eucharistic vestments at Christmas 1873.

Opposition to Dale crystallized around his ritualism, especially after he offered locum tenens support in 1875 to the congregation of St Alban the Martyr, Holborn, whilst the Revd Alexander Heriot Mackonochie's was suspended for Ritualist practices. In 1876 he was prosecuted under the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874. Dale was supported by the English Church Union in his prosecution by the Church Association. In the same year, he joined the Society of the Holy Cross. In December 1878 he recommenced all his former practices and another judgement against him from Lord Penzance in the Court of Arches was obtained in 1880. Two days later Dale was arrested and imprisoned in Holloway prison.

Dale's imprisonment drew great sympathy from all but his most die-hard opponents. Such imprisonments did more than anything else to turn public opinion against Disraeli's attempt to put down Ritualism by law.

Soon after his release Dale was presented to the living of Sausthorpe-cum-Aswardby, near Spilsby, in 1881. He died on 19 April 1892 (on the eleventh anniversary of the death of Disraeli (one of the architects of the Public Worship Regulation Act 1874) and was buried in Sausthorpe churchyard.