Carteret John Halford Fletcher, Oxford, 1887
Carteret John Halford Fletcher began his working life as a solicitor. He was ordained as a clergyman in the Church of England In 1867 and from 1872 was Rector of the Church of St Martin, Carfax in the centre of Oxford ( wiki . history and images ) . He was married to Agnes and they had three daughters and six sons. Fletcher sat firmly at the broad church end of clerical opinion. In 1874 he invited the then notorious Bishop of Natal, John Colenso ( wiki ), to preach in his Church. When it became public, the invitation was met by a prohibition from the Bishop of Oxford on the grounds that Colenso was not licenced to preach in the Diocese. That Sunday the church held “an unusually large congregation” and Fletcher read the sermon Colenso had been due to deliver. Perhaps the reporter was disappointed that “The discourse was not of a controversial character, and consisted chiefly of a plea for liberty of conscience.” ( Oxfordshire Weekly News - Wednesday 02 December 1874 p5, Col. 5) A