Trevor Randall Beeson OBE AKC FKC (2 March 1926 – 17 October 2023) was a British Anglican clergyman who was Dean of Winchester in the last two decades of the 20th century. He was also a writer, authoring numerous books and working as an ecclesiastical obituarist.^[1]

Biography

Beeson was born in Gedling in 1926.^[2] He was educated at King's College London, studied theology at St Boniface College, Warminster, and was ordained in 1952.^[3]

He began his career with a curacy in Leadgate, County Durham, after which he was priest in charge of St Chad, Stockton-on-Tees^[4] and then on the staff of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square.^[5] Following this he was Vicar of Ware, Hertfordshire and Canon Treasurer of Westminster.^[6] He served as Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons from 1982 to 1987,^[3] before his elevation to the Deanery. He contributed obituaries to The Daily Telegraph and was a columnist for The Guardian.^[2] In retirement Beeson wrote a book about his fellow Deans.^[7]

In 1976 the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred on Beeson the Lambeth degree of Master of Arts.^[3] He was appointed OBE in the 1997 New Year Honours "for services to the Church of England, particularly as Dean of Winchester Cathedral."^[8] He was awarded an honorary DLitt degree by Southampton University in 1999.^[3]

Beeson was married to the former Josephine Cope from 1950 until her death in 1997; they had two daughters. One of Beeson's daughters, Catherine, married Charles Taylor, future Dean of Peterborough; they met whilst Taylor and Beeson were clergy at Westminster Abbey and married there.^[2] Beeson died on 17 October 2023, at the age of 97.^[9]

Publications

• New Area Mission: The parish in the new housing estates (Star Books series), A.R. Mowbray & Co., London, 1963.
• The ministry in new areas, Prism pamphlet no.11, London, 1964.
• Partnership in ministry (ed.), A.R. Mowbray & Co., London, 1964.
• Worship in a united church (with Robin Sharp), Star Books for Anglican-Methodist Reunion, second series, no.7, A.R. Mowbray, Oxford, 1964.
• New Area Ministry (Church's Ministry Series no.2), Church Information Office, Westminster, 1965.
• The world is the agenda: report of a conference of the World Council of Churches Western European Working Group on The Missionary Structure of the Congregation 25–28 April 1966, Parish & People, London, 1966.
• An eye for an ear, SCM Press, 1972. ISBN 0-334-00434-9
• The Church of England in Crisis, Davis-Poynter, London, 1973. ISBN 0-7067-0058-9
• Discretion and valour: religious conditions in Eastern Europe (written with the advice and assistance of the British Council of Churches Working Party on Religious Conditions in Eastern Europe), with a foreword by Sir John Lawrence, William Collins Sons & Co., Glasgow, for the British Council of Churches, 1974. ISBN 0-00-623689-8
• Pioneering on the Christian Frontier (Audenshaw Papers no.50), Audenshaw Foundation, Manchester, 1975.
• To publish or not to publish? (Audenshaw Papers no.51), Audenshaw Foundation, Manchester, 1975.
• Christians and socialism (Audenshaw Papers no.55), Audenshaw Foundation, Manchester, 1976.
• Britain today and tomorrow, Collins, London, 1978. ISBN 0-00-625126-9
• Westminster Abbey, FISA, London, 1981. ISBN 84-378-0854-5
• Discretion and valour: religious conditions in Russia and eastern Europe (revised edition of 1974 publication), Fount Paperbacks, London, 1982. ISBN 0-00-625701-1
• A vision of hope: the churches and change in Latin America (ed. with Jenny Pearce), Collins, London, 1984. ISBN 0-00-626698-3
• A dean's diary: Winchester, 1987-1996, SCM Press, 1997. ISBN 0-334-02754-3
• Window on Westminster: a Canon's diary, 1976–1987, SCM Press, 1998. ISBN 0-334-02745-4
• Rebels and reformers: Christian renewal in the twentieth century, SCM Press, 1999. ISBN 0-334-02792-6
• The bishops, SCM Press, 2002. ISBN 0-334-02867-1
• Priests And Prelates: The Daily Telegraph Clerical Obituaries (ed. & intro), Continuum, 2002. ISBN 0-8264-6337-1 (new editions 2004, ISBN 0-8264-7133-1, and 2006, ISBN 0-8264-8100-0)
• The deans, SCM Press, 2004. ISBN 0-334-02987-2
• The canons: cathedral close encounters, SCM Press, 2006. ISBN 0-334-04041-8
• Round the Church in 50 years: a personal journey, SCM Press, 2007. ISBN 0-334-04148-1
• In tuneful accord: the church musicians, SCM Press, 2009. ISBN 0-334-04193-7
• The church's folk songs: from Hymns Ancient & Modern to Common Prayer 1861-2011, Canterbury Press, 2011. ISBN 978-1-84825-107-6
• The Church's other half: women's ministry, SCM Press, 2011. ISBN 0-334-04382-4