Owen Chadwick

William Owen Chadwick (20 May 1916 – 17 July 2015) was a British Anglican priest, academic, rugby international, writer and prominent historian of Christianity.

Chadwick was born in Bromley, Kent, in 1916, the third of six children of John Chadwick, a barrister, and his wife Edith (née Horrocks).

His father died in 1925.

He was an elder brother of the Very Reverend Henry Chadwick, also a distinguished professor and historian of the early Church, and a younger brother of Sir John Chadwick KCMG, a diplomat whose senior posting was as British Ambassador to Romania.

His eldest brother was sent to Eton College, but Chadwick was educated at Tonbridge School from 1929 to 1935.

He was school captain and captain of the rugby team.

He then studied classics at St John's College, Cambridge.

He received three Blues in rugby playing as hooker for Cambridge University R.U.F.C. in the annual Varsity Match against Oxford University in 1936, 1937 and 1938 (as captain).

In 1936, during his first year at Cambridge, he was selected to tour with a British Lions team in their third trip to Argentina.

Although no caps were awarded on this tour, Chadwick did play in the one match against the full Argentina side, playing in his favoured position of hooker in a 23–0 victory.

The British team won all ten of its matches.

During the 1937/38 season, Chadwick played for invitational touring side, the Barbarians.

Chadwick graduated with a First in History in 1938.

Having been influenced by Martin Charlesworth and Martin Niemöller in 1938, he took a First in theology at Cambridge in 1939.

He then attended Cuddesdon College (a theological college) and was ordained to the diaconate and priesthood of the Church of England in 1940 and 1941, respectively.

He served as a curate at St John's Church in Huddersfield for two years and was then chaplain of Wellington College in Berkshire until the end of the Second World War.

He also played rugby during the war, for Blackheath, and for an England team that played against New Zealand.

After the war, he was made chaplain and Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1947, and then Dean of Chapel.

He became a university theology lecturer in 1949 and published his first book on the 5th-century monk John Cassian in 1950.

Chadwick was elected Master of Selwyn College, Cambridge, in 1955.

Chadwick was elected master of Selwyn College, Cambridge, and served from 1956 to 1983.

In his obituaries, Chadwick was described as "one of the great religious historians of our time" by The Independent, and as "one of the most remarkable men of letters of the 20th century" by The Guardian.

Installed in 1956, Chadwick was the longest-serving Master of Selwyn by the time he retired after 27 years, in 1983.

As a leading academic, Chadwick became Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History in 1958, serving until 1968, and from 1968 to 1983 was Regius Professor of History.

In 1958 he was named Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge University.

During his time as master, Selwyn became a full college of Cambridge University, in 1958 (though it had been founded back in 1882), and it ceased to require its students to be communicant members (Anglicans) of the Church of England.

As Master of Selwyn, Chadwick completed several major building projects, including the new Cripps Court (not to be confused with the similarly named Cripps at Queens' College, Cambridge).

In the 1960s and 1970s, he was suggested as a potential Archbishop of Canterbury, but is thought to have declined the offer of a bishop's mitre more than once.

He had become a fellow of the British Academy in 1962, and was its president from 1981 to 1985.

He then became an honorary fellow at St John's College, Cambridge, in 1964.

He chaired the Archbishops' Commission on Church and State (1966–1970), known as the Chadwick Commission, which recommended that Parliament should pass the regulation of the church to a General Synod rather than disestablishment.

A few years later, in 1968, he was elected to the position of Regius Professor of Modern History, an ancient chair, which he held until 1982, and was President of the British Academy during the early 1980s.

As vice-chancellor from 1969 to 1971, he guided Cambridge through turbulent times in the late 1960s, including the Garden House riot in 1970.

He was also elected president of Cambridge University RFC in 1973.

He was Hensley Henson Lecturer in Theology at Oxford University in 1975–76, and Ford Lecturer in English History at Oxford in 1980–81.

Selwyn College was not the first Oxbridge college to admit women students alongside men, but it adopted the practice relatively early on in 1976.

Under Chadwick's years as Master, the numbers of fellows and postgraduates at Selwyn were doubled, greatly increasing the research output of the college.

He was also a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery from 1978 to 1994, and was chancellor of the University of East Anglia from 1984 to 1994.

He retired as Regius Professor and master of Selwyn College, Cambridge, in 1983.

Owen Chadwick served as a member of the Historical Manuscripts Commission for a period prior to 1992.