Usher, Philip Charles Alexander, 1899-1941

Usher, Philip Charles Alexander, son of Thomas Charles Usher, of Melksham, Wilts, by Constance Emma, daughter of Alexander Bell, of Highbury, London; b. March 18, 1899; adm. Sept. 26, 1912 (G); elected to Ch. Ch. Oxon. July 1917, matric. Trin. 1919; B.A. 1922; M.A. 1925; 2nd Lieut. R.G.A. (S.R.) Feb. 25, 1918; served at Salonika 1918-9; ordained 1923; Domestic Chaplain to the Bishop of Gloucester 1923-4; Chaplain of the Collegiate Church of St. George the Martyr, Jerusalem, 1924-5, of H.M. Legation at Athens 1926-30; domestic Chaplain to the Bishop of Gloucester 1930-7; Warden of Liddon House, London, 1937; Sqdn.-Ldr. (Chaplain) R.A.F.V.R. Nov. 12, 1940; d. on active service at Jerusalem June, 1941.

Philip Charles Alexander Usher was born at Trowbridge, Wiltshire on the 18th of March 1899 the only son of Thomas Charles Usher, of the Wiltshire Brewery, and Constance Emma (nee Bell) Usher “Sunny Croft”, Trowbridge, later of Seend Green House, Seend, Melksham in Wiltshire. He was christened in Wiltshire on the 25th of May 1899. He was educated at Westminster School where he was up Grant’s from the 26th of September 1912 to July 1917. He was a member of the Debating Society from 1916 and was appointed as a Monitor in January 1917. He had won a place at Christ Church, Oxford but deferred it, instead he attended an Officer Cadet Unit before being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery on the 25th of February 1918. He served overseas and relinquished his commission on the 1st of April 1920.
He matriculated for Christ Church, Oxford on a MAM Scholarship in 1919 and was awarded a BA in 1922. He was ordained in 1923, was appointed as Assistant Curate of All Saints Church, Gloucester and also served as Domestic Chaplain to the Bishop of Gloucester at the same time. He was awarded a MA in 1925. He was appointed as the Chaplain to St George’s Cathedral, Jerusalem in 1924 and, from 1928 to 1930, he served as Chaplain to HM Legation in Athens where he ministered to the British Community there. He was fluent in Greek and could converse with people of: - “every class, occupation and type of culture”. He became a great student of Greek life, its language and of the Greek Orthodox Church.
He invalided home to England in 1930 where, on his recovery, he once again became Domestic Chaplain to the Bishop of Gloucester. He chaired the Committee on Relations with Episcopal Churches and was appointed as an Honorary Secretary to the Council on Foreign Relations in 1932. A short time later he was appointed as Warden of Liddon House, where Orthodox clergy would stay while in London, from where he led large Anglican delegations abroad including to Romania in 1935 and to Bulgaria in 1940. He served as the Editor of the “Church Quarterly Review” for nine years. In 1937, he was appointed as the Chaplain of Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley Street.
After war broke out in 1939 he worked for the Interior Ministry as an advisor on the Eastern regions. However, having become - “increasingly dissatisfied with staying at home', he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve where he had hoped to serve in Greece. He was commissioned as a Squadron Leader in the Chaplains Branch of the Royal Air Force Reserve on the 12th of November 1940 and was posted to Palestine.
He died from a cerebral haemorrhage in a hospital at Jerusalem.
A memorial communion service was held in his memory at the Grosvenor Chapel at 11am on the 13th of June 1941. The Philip Usher Memorial Fund was established in his memory to - “Give others an opportunity of living in an Orthodox country in order to absorb its ideological atmosphere”.
He is commemorated on the war memorial at Christ Church, Oxford.
He is buried at Ramleh War Cemetery Row P, Grave 1.

Squadron Leader 87614; Chaplains Branch, Royal Air Force

International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition

Prepared for import into AtoM by Westminster School Archive staff, 2019-2020. Updated by Bethany Duck, Archives Assistant, September 2022.

The Record of Old Westminsters: A biographical list of all those who are known to have been educated at Westminster School from Play 1883 to Election 1960, Volume 3, compiled by J.B. Whitmore, G.R.Y. Radcliffe and D.C. Simpson, Barnet, 1963.

Westminster School Second World War Memorial by John C. Hamblin, 2022.