Charles Thornton Primrose Grierson
Of Rathfarnham House, County Dublin. T.C.D. MA. 1882. B.D. 1896. Previously Rector of Seapatrick, Banbridge 1888 – 1911. Later Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore from 1919 - 1934 when he resigned. His memorial stone is on the north side of the main entrance. The chair of the Bishop of Down and Dromore in the Chancel is also a memorial to him. He appears in a photograph in the archives along with Dean Brett, four Bishops and the Primate taken at the Dedication of the West Front, 2nd June 1927. The Thanksgiving for Victory (World War 1) stone on the West front wall also carries his name. He married Blanche Caldwell Bloomfield of Castle Caldwell, County Fermanagh. His only daughter, Ula Blanche married Henry Kinahan in 1914. He was grandfather of Sir Robin Kinahan and great-grandfather of Canon Timothy Kinahan.
Born in 1857, Charles Thornton Primrose Grierson was the youngest son of George Abraham Grierson, LLD of Rathfarnham House, Dublin and Isabella Ruxton of Ardee, Co Meath. The Irish branch of the Grierson family from Scotland was founded by Sir James Grierson (d 1566) and held the office of King’s Printer for many years. Sir George Grierson, KCIE, Charles’ brother, was an eminent philologist.
Charles Grierson was educated at Rathmines School and Tipperary Grammar School. He then had a distinguished career in Trinity College, Dublin, taking the degree of BA in 1879, MA in 1882 and BD, jure dignitatis, in 1896. He also obtained a first-class Divinity Testimonium and Bishop Forster’s Divinity Prize. In 1881 he was ordained for the curacy of Kells (Meath) and two years later was rector of Stradbally, Co Waterford. He also held the position of Downes’ Lecturer in Waterford Cathedral from 1885 to 1888, when he was nominated to the important parish of Seapatrick (Banbridge). Bishop Welland appointed him Treasurer of Dromore Cathedral in 1897 and he was selected in the following year to be chaplain to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
After 13 successful years in Banbridge he was elected Vicar of Belfast and at his institution on 8th October 1911, Archbishop d’Arcy appointed him to the Deanery of Belfast Cathedral. Charles Grierson was an excellent preacher and got the best out of his many committees. His great ambition was to draw together the various Protestant Churches and, with the approval of his close friend Archbishop d’Arcy, he made the Cathedral a centre where all could worship on special occasions without feeling they were deserting their own Churches. And so, in 1918, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Dr Cooper, preached in the Cathedral, this being the first occasion on which an interchange of pulpits took place. The example was then followed by Canterbury, St. Paul’s and elsewhere. Subsequently, the pulpits of Windsor, May Street and Cliftonpark Presbyterian Churches in Belfast were occupied by Dr Grierson. Since then, leading ministers from most religions have taken part in Cathedral services. He had another notable ‘first’. In 1924, those who had their crystal sets tuned in will have heard the inaugural Sunday broadcast of sacred music - and a Grierson sermon.
On 28 October 1919 he was consecrated as Bishop of Down and Connor and Dromore in Armagh Cathedral. The offertory proceeds were devoted to the Building Fund of Belfast Cathedral! In the previous December he had proposed that the Fund be used to build a Chapel in the south transept (then not yet built) which “would be set apart to be a complete church in itself for smaller services”.
Charles Grierson married, on 30 June 1879, Blanche Caldwell Bloomfield, the only daughter of John Caldwell Bloomfield, DL, of Castle Caldwell, a former High Sheriff of County Fermanagh. She was also related to the Brookes of Colebrooke. During the Great War Mrs Grierson was an active enthusiastic worker on behalf of the UVF Hospital where many beds were endowed through her efforts. Like her husband, she also had a keen interest in the Unionist cause, working on propaganda in England and Scotland. She died on 12 June 1920. The Greirsons had a daughter, Ula, who married Henry Kinahan and died on 24 February 1949.
In September 1934 Bishop Grierson accepted medical advice and decided to retire at 77 due to his failing eyesight. He died at his home, Hughenden, 66 Somerton Road, Belfast on 9 July 1935, aged 78. After a Service in the Cathedral, he was buried to be with his late wife in Belfast’s City Cemetery where later, in a double grave, were buried their daughter and son-in-law. Sir Charles Nicholson designed a Bishop’s seat to stand in the Chancel as a memorial to him. It was made in Belfast by Purdy & Milland and was dedicated on 6 November 1938.
