11 Facts About Edgar Jacob

Edgar Jacob was an English churchman, who became Bishop of Newcastle and then Bishop of St Albans.

Edgar Jacob was born at the rectory in Crawley, Hampshire, on 16 November 1844.

Edgar Jacob was the fifth son of Philip Jacob, Rector of Crawley, Archdeacon of Winchester and Rural Dean, and Anna Sophia, eldest daughter of Gerard Thomas Noel.

Edgar Jacob was educated at Winchester College and at New College, Oxford, of which he was a scholar, matriculating in 1863.

Edgar Jacob was ordained priest in 1869 and went to be assistant curate of Witney from that year until 1871.

Edgar Jacob was Vicar of Portsea from 1878 until 1896, and additionally Honorary Canon of Winchester Cathedral starting in 1884.

Edgar Jacob was Honorary Chaplain to Queen Victoria from 1887 until he became her Chaplain-in-Ordinary in 1890, and Rural Dean of Landport and Chaplain to HM Prison Kingston, Portsmouth from 1892.

Bishop Edgar Jacob was translated to become Bishop of St Albans in May 1903, where he remained until 1919.

The latter diocese, which embraced a large part of the poorer outlying parts of London, was large for the effective control of one bishop, consisting as it did of 630 benefices and nearly 900 clergy, and Edgar Jacob worked hard to secure the formation of a new bishopric out of it.

Edgar Jacob was a vocal supporter of British involvement in the Great War, and encouraged his clergy to be active in assisting the National War effort.

Edgar Jacob retired from his see in December 1919, and died at the Hospital of St Cross in Winchester, Hampshire, England.