Herbert Richard Peel

Reverend Herbert Richard Peel (1831–1885) was an English clergyman. He played cricket for Oxford University and Kent County Cricket Club. He also worked to popularise apiculture. Life He was the son of John Peel (1798–1875), at the time of his birth a prebendary of Canterbury Cathedral then later Dean of Worcester, and his wife Augusta Swinfen (1794–1861); Robert Peel the prime minister of the United Kingdom, was his uncle. He was educated at Eton College, under Edward Craven Hawtrey as headmaster, and then spent two years as a private pupil of the Rev. Henry Drury, at Bremhill. He matriculated in 1849 at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated B.A, in 1853, and M.A. in 1856. Peel became a priest in the Church of England, ordained in 1854 and initially a curate at Hallow, Worcestershire to 1855. He was then curate at Charlecote. In 1860 he was appointed by his father as rector of Handsworth, an industrial town then in Staffordshire. Retiring from the ministry in 1873, he spent two years travelling, in poor health with rheumatic fever. In 1875 Peel's father died, and he went to live at Abbot's Hill in Hertfordshire. Soon afterwards he became involved with the British Bee-Keepers' Association. In 1882 he moved to Thornton Hall, Buckinghamshire.