HENRY ROBERT WHELPTON… biographical notes

compiled by Fred Reeve

 Henry Robert Whelpton was born in Louth Lincolnshire in 1833, the youngest son of George and Elizabeth Whelpton.George was a shoemaker and Wesleyan Methodist local preacher who made a large fortune from his own successful brand of general-purpose ‘family medicine’ pills.  Similar products were widely available from many different manufacturers in Britain until the advent of the National Health Service in 1948.They were often simply laxative preparations. When professional medical advice became easier to access they gradually disappeared.

 There are several legends about the discovery of the secret remedy but it is probable that a local chemist friend who employed Robert Whelpton, George’s nephew, as an apprentice was involved in launching Whelpton’s Pills in 1835. George soon gave up his original trade and moved to Derby about 1840 where pills began to be marketed on a commercial scale.  George Whelpton & Son was a family enterprise until the mid 1870s.The ‘son’ was Henry Robert’s brother William Thompson who laid the foundation stone of St Saviour’s Church. He became well known for his philanthropic work in Methodism.

 Henry Robert was privately educated almost certainly in preparation for a university education. As a non-conformist this would not have been possible in 1850s England. By 1854 the family were living at 1 Albert Road, Regents Park London an area of much new building development which included the neighbourhood Church of St Mark in the Parish of St Pancras. The business was based at Crane Court, Fleet Street. It was a difficult year as George junior died of tuberculosis soon after the move.  George, Elizabeth and Henry Robert appear to have drawn close to the Church of England at this time making it possible for Henry Robert to enter St Johns College Cambridge from which he graduated B.A. in 1857. He then continued at Cambridge with a   period of formal theological study. He was priested in the Diocese of London in 1858 after serving his title in the recently created District of All Saints Dalston a division of the large poor parish of Shoreditch

 In 1859 the year in which his mother died he was appointed to the parish of Upton cum Chalvey, Slough and in 1862 to St Edmund’s Salisbury.

  George had remarried and retired to Hastings. He had friends with Eastbourne connections who knew that there was a demand for church building in the fast developing New Town. This would provide his son with a splendid career opportunity. The family wealth enabled George Edmund Street the well known Anglo Catholic architect of the gothic revival to be engaged in design.

 Henry Robert Whelpton resigned his Salisbury post moving to St Leonard’s Villa opposite Holy Trinity Church in 1865 from where he worked energetically for some eighteen months or to make the St Saviour’s project a success. He preached at Holy Trinity and in the iron church in what is now Hardwick Road erected in 1863 to provide much needed overflow accommodation for the large number of visitors to the popular seaside resort.

 His churchmanship is later recorded as ‘moderate high church’following the approach of Edward Bouverie Pusey rather than the prevalent Anglo Catholic style of nearby Brighton.  This was still a matter of concern to the Evangelical Vicar of Eastbourne Thomas Pitman M.A who had been in post since 1827 when Eastbourne was just a downland village. He was to remain until his death in 1890 by which time it was a significant town of over 30000 resident population a number greatly increased in the holiday season. There were by then many places of worship. Fortunately Pitman generally welcomed the new church and in particular supported the extensive social and charitable work outreach, which extended well beyond the district chapelry boundaries. A musical tradition was soon established which became widely known, sustained by the establishment of a choir school. The large congregations promoted the establishment of St Peter’s as a chapel of ease, which later became a parish in its own right.

 Thomas Pitman remained in firm overall control of the ancient parish.  The first perpetual curate of St Saviours had less freedom of action in worship in the District than he would have had in a ‘new parish’. Independent parish status had to wait until after the Vicar’s death in 1890 by which time Canon Whelpton’s health was beginning to fail. He was made a Canon of Chichester cathedral in 1882 and was acting chaplain to the 2^nd Sussex volunteer brigade Royal Artillery in 1884 However the Rev Henry Urling Whelpton was already being prepared to succeed his father. There were six other children one of who, Marsden. died in infancy. The font is his memorial

 Canon Whelpton died after a long illness on 23^rd July 1902 aged 68.