Percy Dearmer - London, England - Blue Plaques on Waymarking.com

Percy Dearmer was born in Kilburn, England to artist Thomas Dearmer. He attended Streatham School, Westminster School, and boarding school in Switzerland. He received Bachelor of Arts degree, in 1890, from Christ Church, Oxford, after studying modern history.

Dearmer was ordained to the diaconate in 1891 and to the priesthood in 1892 at Rochester Cathedral. He became a famous liturgist and is best known as the author of The Parson's Handbook, a liturgical manual for Anglican clergy. He was an early advocate of the public ministry of women and advocated for social justice. Dearmer influenced the music of the church and is credited with the revival and dissemination of traditional and medieval English musical forms.

On May 26, 1892 he married Jessie Mabel Prichard White. They had two sons, Geoffrey and Christopher, both of whom served in World War I. In 1915, Christopher died of wounds received in battle. During World War I, Dearmer served as chaplain to the British Red Cross ambulance unit in Serbia, where his wife, while also serving with an ambulance unit died of enteric fever in 1915.

In collaboration with composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, Dearmer published The English Hymnal in 1906. He worked with Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw to produce Songs of Praise (1926) and The Oxford Book of Carols (1928).

Percy Dearmer died of coronary thrombosis on May 29, 1936. His ashes are interred in the Great Cloister at Westminster Abbey.