Slemsman Index: B
Stanley Graham Brade Birks
1912-1913
BA Arts
Born in Burnage, Lancashire, in 1888, Stanley (Graham) Birks was the eldest child of Brooklyn Birks, a grey cloth merchant, and his wife Annie. One younger sister, Marianne, was born in 1896. Graham grew up with his parents and sister in Burnage, attending Hulme grammar school and later the University of Manchester. He was a resident of St Anselm Hall 1912-1913, prior to being awarded a Masters of Science degree from the University of Manchester, along with his future wife Hilda Brade. Ordained as a deacon in 1914, Birks was appointed to Holy Trinity, Darwen and later to a lectureship at the South East Agricultural College (Wye College), Kent, where he served until 1948. In addition to his lectureship, he was made vicar of Godmersham, Kent, in 1930 and later given the additional appointments of Crundale and Rural Dean of Westbridge Cantebury. On his marriage in 1917, Graham joined his name with that of his wife to become Brade Birks and the pair together published twenty-three papers on myriapoda, with a further twelve papers published by Graham alone. This was in addition to Graham’s variety of other interests, which included history and archaeology. In 1972, at the age of 84, he presided over the Second International Congress of Myriapodology at the University of Manchester, welcoming members in three languages. Graham died in 1982, just a few months before Hilda.
You can find out more about Graham’s story here.
Leslie Rowland Brasher
c.1911
Matriculation
Born in Cheltenham in 1894, Leslie Rowland Brasher was the eldest son of William Brasher and Jessie Folley and had two younger siblings, a sister and brother. His father- who had been educated at Nottingham University College- ran a Stationer’s and booksellers in Cheltenham High Street. In 1901, Leslie was living with his parents, his siblings and his spinster aunt, Alice Folley, a schoolmistress, at Langton Grove Road in Charlton Kings, a village just outside of Cheltenham. By 1911, Leslie now aged 16, was a matriculation student residing at St. Anselm’s Hostel, Rusholme. It is, however, unclear whether Leslie went on to take a degree. Leslie served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the in the Royal Berkshire (Princes Charlotte of Wales) Regiment and at the end of the war, in 1919, married Olive Spencer. The couple settled in Cheltenham & had two children. Leslie worked as an Insurance Broker. He died in Kent in 1956.
Harold Barnes Brayford
Gartness Hostel 1919-1921
St Anselm Hall 1921-1922
B.A. History
From Tunstall in Staffordshire, Harry Barnes Brayford was the son of Edwin and Sarah Ann Brayford. Edwin worked as a potter’s manager and Harry (who was born in 1900) was the second of four siblings, including his older sister Kate who had learning difficulties from a young age. As a young boy, Harry attended Christ Church, Tunstall, where he eventually became a Sunday School teacher.. During the First World War Harry served with the Sherwood Foresters.
After the War, Harry joined the Ordination Test School (Knutsford) in Le Touquest France, remaining with it after its transfer to Knutsford, Cheshire. During his subsequent studies at the University of Manchester, Harry was initially a student at Gartness Hostel and was one of the students who transferred to St. Anselm’s during the 1921 merger.
Harry graduated with honours in history in 1922 and spent a further two years studying at Rippon Theological College in Cuddesdon, Oxford. He was ordained as a deacon in 1924 and appointed to St Mark’s in Woodcote, Purley, Surrey. Ordained as a priest at the Southwark Trinity Ordination of 1925, Harry was appointed curate of Eltham, Kent, in 1926 and in 1927 married Ethel King. The marriage service was conducted by his fellow Slemsman Thomas Gribbin.
Harry’s next appoint saw him move to Yorkshire where he was made curate of Hebden Bridge, Kent, with a living of St. John’s, Bradshaw, to which he was officially appointed vicar in 1934. In 1937, Harry again collaborated with Thomas Gribbin, preaching at the St Chad’s Ascension Day service.
Harry’s next appointment was to Spetisbury in Dorset in 1943, and from there he was appointed to nearby Frampton in 1959. Harry died in Hereford in May 1972.
Harold Young Burnett
St Anselm Hall 1922-1923
Harold Young Burnett was born in Bristol in June 1892 and was the youngest of the two surviving children of Charles Burnett, a draper, and his wife Bessie Young. As a young man, Harold followed his father into the drapery trade and the 1911 census records him as a drapery salesman for the Midland Drapery. This was a department store in Derby and, like many department store staff, he lived in residential accommodation provided by the store.
During the First World War, Harold served as a private in the 1st/3rd South Midlands Field Ambulance and at the end of the war he began his ordination training at Knutsford. Harold began his University education at Manchester in 1919, however he does not appear as a resident of Slems or Gartness in 1921 with later hall records suggesting he was probably a member of the 1922-1923 session. Harold later spoke of his war experiences ‘He had, in common with others lost good friends in the last two wars, and he had particularly in mind two young men with whom he used to get about in Bristol. And ex-Service men knew how they felt about pals. He thought of those lives which might have been spent usefully in the service of God and their fellow-men’
After leaving the University of Manchester, Harold was a student at the London College of Divinity from 1922 until his ordination as deacon in 1924, when he was made curate of St. Clements, Broughton, in Salford. On finishing at the London College of Divinity, Harold married Gladys Conibear, with whom he had two sons.
In 1927 Harold was given a new curacy, this time of St. Margarets in Burnage, Manchester and between 1931 and 1934 he was vicar of Audley, Staffordshire.
For a period of twelve years, from 1934 to 1946, Harold was vicar of Clitheroe, Staffordshire and for ten of those years was also chaplain to the Clitheroe branch of the British Legion. On leaving Clitheroe, Harold was given a cheque for £50 and Gladys an electric kettle. In his farewell speech, Harold spoke about how much the church and school meant to him and how many he was going to miss many things, especially the children.
Between 1946 and 1953, Harold was vicar of Heapey, near Chorley, Lancashire and he was then made Vicar of Broomfield-with-Faxfleet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, a position he held from 1953 to 1960 when he took up his final appointment as rector of Norton-in-Hales, near Market Drayton, Shropshire.