The Very Reverend Harold Costley-White was born in 1878. He was an Old Malvernian who became a school master, later a headmaster, and a Clerk in Holy Orders.
He flourished at Malvern. He was in School House and, appropriately enough, Senior Chapel Prefect. He excelled in Divinity, Greek and Latin, winning prizes in all of them, and was President of the Debating Society. He won a Classical Scholarship to Balliol taking a first and becoming the Goldsmith Scholar. He was ordained after coming down as was common practice for schoolmasters in Victorian era.
He taught at Sherborne and Rugby before becoming headmaster of Bradfield, Liverpool College and then Westminster, where he was in post when the Old Malvernian Lodge was founded. He would be Headmaster at Westminster from 1919 to 1937, and Canon of Westminster Abbey.
He was a Chaplain to King George V and went on after Westminster to be Dean of Gloucester Cathedral.
He was initiated into the Old Bradfield Lodge No 3549 and joined the Old Westminsters Lodge No 2233.
His ashes are interred in the Islip Chapel at Westminster Abbey.
Photo Credit: © 2019 Dean and Chapter of Westminster