Harold Davidson

Harold Francis Davidson , generally known as the Rector of Stiffkey, was a Church of England priest who, after a notorious court case in 1932, was convicted on charges of immorality and defrocked. Davidson strongly protested his innocence and to raise funds for his reinstatement campaign he exhibited himself in a barrel on the Blackpool seafront. He performed in other sideshows of a similar nature and died after being attacked by a lion in whose cage he was appearing in a seaside show.

Harold Davidson was born onJuly 1875 in Sholing, near the south coast port of Southampton, to the Reverend Francis Davidson and his wife Alice. Francis Davidson was the vicar of St Marys, Sholing, a post he had held since 1866 as many asmembers of the Davidson family were or had been Anglican clergy. Alice Davidson, ne Hodgskin, was a greatniece of the educationist and Rugby School headmaster Thomas Arnold. Sholing was a poor parish, with a mixed population of dock labourers and itinerant workers many of whom had little interest in churchgoing. Francis Davidson, described by Harold Davidsons biographer, Tom Cullen, as a tiny man160... with a luxuriant beard that gave him the appearance of a gnome, served the parish for 48 years. Although he could be pugnacious when necessary, according to a former parishioner he was a true pastor, willing to offer help whatever the circumstances.

Source: Wikipedia