[taken from Chapter 1 Manx Worthies, A.W.Moore, 1901]

THOMAS HOWARD GILL (b. 1837, d. 1894),

son of the Rev. William Gill was educated at King William's College, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated as servitor sometime in 1859, and in the same year was ordained as curate to his father at Malew. In 1863, he was appointed Chaplain of St. Mark's, where, though only remaining two years, he repaired both the chapel and the parsonage. From 1865 to 1868 he was Rector of St. Jude's, Ancoats, when he rebuilt the parish church, and opened a fund for building a new church. In 1868, came his appointment to the important living of St. Margaret's, Whalley Range. a suburban district where the population increased from 5.000 to 30,000 during the thirteen Years of his incumbency. Such a change naturally, imposed a strenuous struggle upon the rector, by whose exertions, mainly, the single parish, with one church and school, was divided into four parishes, with four churches and schools. But all this imposed a terrible strain on his constitution, so that, in 1881, he was driven to accept a lighter charge at Trowbridge, in Wiltshire. Restored to health by this change, he was able to accept the arduous post of Chaplain of the Rue d'Acrnesseau Church in Paris) in 1883. Here, in the words of Lord Lytton, in a farewell address to him, in 1890, "he found his church deserted and decaying, and he leaves it restored, substantially rebuilt, and thronged with worshippers." In addition to this, he, in 1888, founded the Victoria Home at Neuilly as a shelter for aged Englishwomen who had been left isolated in France, without sufficient means. At Tonbridge, where he was instituted in 1890, he pursued the same path of practical benevolence. During the whole of his career he had taken a great interest in educational problems, and had a fixed determination to maintain the Church's hold, not only upon the training of the young, but upon every department of the national life. Wherever he came to minister, he threw himself at once, and heart and soul, into organising Church literary societies, social clubs, charities, and all like institutions. A strong and devoted son of the Church, he had the ability to devise and the power to carry out much for its benefit and advancement. He was a true man, as well as a true Churchman, and his virtues were broadly rooted in a genuine humanity.

Thomas Howard Gill

See Biography - Thomas Howard Gill.