Stephen Warner

Early life

Stephen Mortimer Warner was born in Eltham, Kent on 17 January 1873. The fifth of nine children, his father Alfred was 35, a hotelier at the Craven Hotel, Craven Street, off the Strand in London; his mother Mary was 26.

Ordination and Ministry

Stephen Warner attended the London College of Divinity and graduated in classics from Durham University. In 1896, he became a deacon at St Simon's church in Southsea. He was ordained a priest in 1897 and in the same year married Marion Gower Tooth, who was a cousin of Sir Robert Lucas Lucas-Tooth, 1st Baronet.

Between 1898 and 1900, he was the vicar of Savernake, near Marlborough, before spending a year at St Paul's in Poole. From 1910 to 1914, he was the vicar of Christ Church, Sandown before moving to St Paul's, Upper Norwood until 1919.

From 1919 until his death in 1947, he was the rector of Holy Trinity, Eastbourne.

Holy Trinity, Eastbourne

Stephen Warner came to Holy Trinity, Eastbourne in 1919 and made the church a centre of Christian life and activity. His Evangelical preaching and teaching were of a missionary character and he built up a fellowship among young and old alike which had a great influence in the town among residents and visitors.

Countless numbers of people were greatly helped by his forceful Bible teachings. In addition to his sermons in the church, he held open air services on the seafront during the summer months

His influence extended far beyond Eastbourne. He had travelled all over England conducting missions and when he became Canon Warner - a prebendary of Chichester Cathedral – in 1930, he enriched the life of the diocese.

Canon Warner was later elected president of the Eastbourne branch of the CEZMS (the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society) and Hon Secretary of the annual gathering of Evangelical clergy and Laymen of the Diocese of Chichester.

His missionary work and an encompassing interest in youth organisations were, with his zeal for writing religious books, a great part of his life.

He worked very hard for the United Mission in 1923 and had previously conducted the Mission in London but these duties took their toll. On 9 December that year he was preaching in the pulpit when illness overtook him but he finished the sermon and gave out the notice of a hymn. He then asked another vicar to conduct the rest of the service, before struggling to the vestry where he collapsed.

In 1938, on the centenary of Holy Trinity, the Bishop of Leicester referred in a sermon to the great social benefits brought to Britain by the Evangelical ministry of Holy Trinity. The Bishop of Chichester praised Canon Warner's zeal as a missionary, both in Eastbourne and elsewhere.

Although Canon Warner was an excellent pastor, his forte did not necessarily lie in administration. Indeed, he used to hold PCC meetings at 6.30pm in the Vicarage so that they could be dispensed with by the time the 7.30pm dinner gong sounded.

Studland

Stephen Warner had a long association with and affection for Studland village in Dorset. He first travelled there with his wife Marion while on their honeymoon in Bournemouth in January 1897. The journey involved a horse-drawn omnibus to Sandbanks, a rowing boat across the entrance to Poole Harbour and a pony trap from Shell Bay.

The following summer the couple spent their holiday in the village at Agglestone House before buying ‘Sunnyholme’ in 1901. From 1905 until 1945, Canon Warner and his family held the tenancy of the Coombe House.

Until his death in 1947, Canon Warner took the services at St Nicholas’ on many occasions when the rector was away and is buried in the churchyard.

List of works

Fifty-two steps Up the Ladder of Truth (Hodder & Stoughton, 1940)

“The Best is Yet to Be" Studies in the Book of the Revelation (Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1943)

Is it True that God answers Prayer? (Church Book Room, 1935)

There is another Spring. Studies in the “Psalms” (Dunn's of Eastbourne, 1945)