Description
Owen Emeric Vidal (1819-1854)
This portrait is very possibly the only existing portrait of Owen Emeric Vidal, taken in the year 1852 when he was appointed the first Bishop of Sierra Leone, aged 33. The ceremony took place on Whit Sunday, May 1852, in Lambeth Palace. The Archbishop of Canterbury was assisted by the Bishops of London, Chichester, Oxford, and Cape Town, the sermon was preached by the Lord Bishop of London. He was the first Anglican Bishop in West Africa and, like his father, a gifted linguist. He knew Tamil, Malay and Yoruba. Unfortunately, he died at sea, 48 hours before his return to Sierra Leone, having been out visiting churches in Yoruba, on or about the 23rd December 1854, and was buried at Freetown on 27 December 1855.
Vidal married in 1852 Ann Adelaide Hoare, the fourth daughter of the Rev. Henry Hoare, vicar of Framfield.
The Times, Friday, Feb 09, 1855, wrote: That Dr. Vidal possessed eminent abilities is most certain, or he would not have been consecrated a bishop at the early age of 33. His death is greatly deplored, and his loss will be severely felt by the church at Sierra Leone, which is only now in its infancy. It is said, in a letter before us, that thousands of all classes attended his funeral, demonstrating at once that he had been a highly revered and popular man in Sierra Leone.
The diocese of Sierra Leone comprised of all British possessions on the west coast of Africa, between the 20th degree of north and the 20th degree of south latitude, and more especially the colonies of Sierra Leone, the Gambia, and the Gold Coast. He resided at the Christian Institution, Fourah Bay, near Freetown, Sierra Leone.
His father Emeric Essex Vidal. R.N. 1791-1861 was a gifted watercolourist and his mother Anna Jane Capper, was the daughter of the Rev. James Capper, born at East Hampstead. Owen was educated at St Paul’s School, Southsea. He matriculated at St John’s College, Cambridge, in 1838, where he graduated B.A. in 1842, and M.A. in 1845; he was awarded a D.D. (Doctor of Divinity) in 1852. Ordained deacon in March 1843, Vidal was ordained priest in December of the same year. He was Vicar of Holy Trinity, Upper Dicker until his elevation to the episcopate
Upper Dicker, Holy Trinity Church, East Sussex.
A memorial to Rev Vidal, the first vicar of Upper Dicker is set upon the north wall of the nave. In rather florid verse it remembers Vidal in these words;
‘To commemorate the virtues of one whose life adorned the doctrine of God his Saviour in all things: here for a few brief years: afterwards as an Apostle of the Gentiles, beneath the burning skies of Africa: A few sorrowing friends, rather as an expression of their own respect than as an adequate memorial of his worth — since his best and truest record is on high — erect this humble tablet.’
