Cuthbert Thicknesse

The Very Rev Cuthbert Carroll Thicknesse^[1] (19 November 1887 – 2 June 1971) was Dean of St Albans^[2] from 1936^[3] until his retirement in 1955.

Born into an ecclesiastical family^[4] and educated at Marlborough and Keble College, Oxford, he was ordained in 1913.^[5] He was firstly a Curate of St John-at-Hackney^[6] and then a Temporary Chaplain to the Forces, during which time he married Rhoda Oonah Marjorie Madan Pratt.^[7] He was wounded at Ypres and became Rector of Badsworth,^[8] after which he was Rector of Wigan Parish Church^[9] and an Honorary Chaplain to the King before his elevation to the Deanery. A fierce opponent of nuclear weapons,^[10] he refused to hold a service of celebration in St Albans Cathedral at the cessation of the war with Japan in August 1945.^[11] He was described in his obituary as “a high church man and convinced Anglican”.^[12]

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