Percy Dearmer

1867-1936. Anglican scholar. Educated at Oxford, he was influenced by Charles Gore* in the direction of Christian Socialism.* He was vicar of St. Mary's, Primrose Hill, London (1901-15), where he adapted medieval English liturgy to the Prayer Book, as advocated in his Parson's Handbook (1899; rev. 1965). He was professor of ecclesiastical art at King's College, London (1919-36), and from 1931 canon of Westminster. His books treated such topics as ecclesiology, topography, and English church history. He edited the Anglo-Catholic English Hymnal (1906, with R. Vaughan Williams* as musical editor; new musical ed. 1933); the modernist Songs of Praise (1925, with Martin Shaw and Vaughan Williams as musical editors; enlarged ed. 1931); Songs of Praise Discussed (1933); and The Oxford Book of Carols (1928). He wrote original hymns and translations, and he bowdlerized older hymns.