View source for Howard Mowll

{{Short description|Australian bishop}}
{{Use Australian English|date=January 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| honorific-prefix = [[The Most Reverend]]
| name = Howard Mowll
| honorific-suffix = 
| title = [[Anglican Archbishop of Sydney|Archbishop of Sydney]]
| image = StJohnsAshfield Centenary Sutton p05 Howard Mowll.jpg
| image_size = 
| alt = 
| caption = 
| church = [[Church of England]]
| province = [[Province of New South Wales|New South Wales]]
| diocese = [[Anglican Diocese of Sydney|Sydney]]
| term = 1933–1958
| predecessor = [[John Wright (Archbishop of Sydney)|John Wright]]
| successor = [[Hugh Gough (bishop)|Hugh Gough]]
| other_post = {{ubl|[[Province of New South Wales|Metropolitan of {{nowrap|New South Wales}}]]|(''ex officio'')|[[Diocese of Western China#Bishops and assistant bishops|Bishop of Western China]]|(1926–1933)|[[Anglican Primate of Australia|Primate of Australia]]|(1947–1958)}}
<!---------- Orders ---------->| ordination = 21 September 1913 {{nowrap|(as deacon)}}<br>by [[Edmund Knox (bishop of Manchester)|Edmund Knox]]<br>7 June 1914<br>(as priest)
| ordained_by = [[Randall Davidson]]
| consecration = 24 June 1922
| consecrated_by = <!---------- Personal details ---------->
| birth_name = Howard West Kilvinton Mowll
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1890|2|2|df=y}}
| birth_place = Chaldercot, near [[Dover]], [[Kent]], England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1958|10|24|1890|2|2|df=y}}
| death_place = St Luke's Private Hospital, [[Potts Point]], [[New South Wales]]
| nationality = 
| religion = [[Anglicanism|Anglican]]
| residence = 
| parents = {{ubl|Henry Martyn Mowll|Gertrude Emily, {{née|Worsfold}}}}
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Dorothy Anne Mowll|Dorothy Anne Martin]]|23 October 1924}}
| children = 
| profession = 
| previous_post = [[Diocese of Western China|Assistant Bishop and Bishop of Western China]]
| education = {{ubl|[[Dover College]]|[[The King's School, Canterbury]]}}
| alma_mater = [[King's College, Cambridge]]
| motto = 
| signature = 
| signature_alt = 
| coat_of_arms = Coat of arms of Howard Mowll.jpg
| coat_of_arms_alt = Coat of arms of Howard Mowll
}}

'''Howard West Kilvinton Mowll''' (2 February 1890 – 24 October 1958) was the [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] [[Anglican ministry#Bishops|Bishop]] [[Diocese of Western China|of Western China]] from 1926 to 1933, and [[Anglican Archbishop of Sydney|Archbishop of Sydney]] from 1933 until his death in 1958.<ref>''[[Crockford's Clerical Directory]] 1940-41'', Oxford, [[OUP]], 1941.</ref><ref>"Most Rev. H. W. K. Mowll", ''[[The Times]]'', 26 October 1958; p. 10.</ref>

==Early life==
Mowll was born in [[Dover]] and was educated at the [[King's School, Canterbury]], [[King's College, Cambridge]], and [[Ridley Hall, Cambridge|Ridley Hall]].<ref name=WWW/> He was the eldest of six children of Henry Martyn Mowll, a solicitor, and his wife Gertrude Emily Worsfold, a daughter of C. K. Worsfold, who had married in April 1889. He had four brothers and a sister. In 1911, the family had four servants.<ref>"Miss Gertrude Emily Worsfold" in ''UK and Ireland, Newspapers.com Marriage Index'', accessed 30 June 2025 {{subscription}}: from ''Dover Chronicle'' (Kent, England), Saturday 4 May 1889, page 4</ref><ref> [https://www.ancestry.com/api/media/retrieval/v2/image/namespaces/2352/media/rg14_04605_0165_03.jpg "Chaldercot, Dover"] in [[1911 United Kingdom census]] at ancestry.com, accessed 30 June 2025 {{subscription}}</ref>

==Career==
In 1913 Mowll was appointed as a tutor at [[Wycliffe College, Toronto]], where he went on to serve as Dean from 1919 to 1922.<ref name=WWW>''[[Who's Who (UK)|Who was Who 1897–1990]]'', London, [[A & C Black]], 1991, {{ISBN|0-7136-3457-X}}.</ref>

In June 1922, Mowll was consecrated as a bishop at [[Westminster Abbey]]<ref name=ADEB/> and sailed to become Assistant Bishop to [[William Cassels]], [[Diocese of Western China#Bishops and assistant bishops|Bishop of Western China]]. In 1926, he succeeded him as bishop, remaining in post until 1933, when he was elected as [[Anglican Archbishop of Sydney|Archbishop of Sydney]].<ref name=WWW/> 

Mowll's election as Archbishop was a pivotal moment for the diocese of Sydney. His predecessor, [[John Wright (archbishop of Sydney)|Archbishop Wright]], in office since 1909, had been a liberal reformer, while Mowll had always stood firm against liberalism and was a staunch and unashamed Conservative [[Evangelical Anglicanism|evangelical]]. A campaign to promote Mowll was led by Archdeacon Langford Smith, supported by D. J. Knox and R. B. Robinson. They arranged meetings in the parishes to highlight the strengths of Mowll, and articles in ''[[The Australian Church Record]]'' and ''[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]''. The other leading candidates were [[John Moyes (bishop)|John Moyes]], Bishop of Armidale, an advocate for the "social gospel", and [[Joseph Hunkin (bishop)|Joseph Hunkin]], Rector of Rugby and Archdeacon of Coventry, a Liberal Evangelical. Mowll was elected in a landslide, and this was a decisive turning point for the diocese, changing its direction from Liberal to Conservative Evangelicalism, its dominant culture well into the 21st century.<ref name=EL>Ed Loane, "The Election of Archbishop Mowll: A Decision with Consequence", in ''[[The Australian Church Record]]'', Autumn 2021, australianchurchrecord.net, [https://www.australianchurchrecord.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ACR065-ACR-Autumn-2021-WEB3.pdf pp. 48–51]</ref> 

In 1934, Mowll was chosen as Sub-Prelate of the [[Order of Saint John (chartered 1888)|Venerable Order of St John of Jerusalem]].<ref name=WWW/>

Within a month of the [[World War II|Second World War]] starting, Mowll had formed the [[Church of England National Emergency Fund]] (CENEF), which was supported with volunteers and fundraising by the Sydney Diocesan Churchwomen's Association. CENEF funded huts for recreation and chaplains in military camps around Sydney, as well as at [[St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney]], and other churches around the city. To continue to help ex-service people after the war and youth work, CENEF raised funds to buy 201 [[Castlereagh Street]], Sydney, and Rathane in the [[Royal National Park]]. CENEF leveraged the Castlereagh Street building to buy land at Gilbulla and 117 acres in Castle Hill for a retirement village. This retirement village was one of his great achievements (some say his wife [[Dorothy Anne Mowll|Dorothy]] was the driving force behind the idea), and became the first retirement village in Australia. Today this site remains the flagship for [[Anglican Retirement Villages, Diocese of Sydney]]. 

In 1946, Mowll became Chairman of the National Missionary Council of Australia and Tasmania, and President of the Australian Section of the [[World Council of Churches]]. Having risen to national prominence during the war years, in 1947 he was elected as [[Primate (bishop)|Primate]] of Australia.<ref name=WWW/>

As Archbishop of Sydney, Mowll consistently promoted evangelism and in 1958 he invited [[Billy Graham]] to conduct a [[List of Billy Graham's crusades|"crusade"]] in the city. Mowll did not live to see this take place, but in April and May 1959 about one quarter of Sydney's population attended and 57,000 responded to the Gospel call.<ref name=EL/>

==Personal life==
On 23 October 1924, in a Church of England religious ceremony at [[Mianzhu|Mienchu]], Mowll married [[Dorothy Anne Mowll|Dorothy Anne Martin]], a missionary, the daughter of a clergyman, John Martin. The marriage was repeated in the British Consulate-General in [[Chengdu|Chengtu]] in December 1924.<ref>"No. 37, Seventeenth December 1924, Howard West Kilvinton Mowll, Dorothy Anne Mowll, formerly Martin", ''District of British Consul-General at Chengtu'' p. 19</ref> They had no children.<ref name=ADEB>[https://sites.google.com/view/australian-dictionary-of-evang/m/mowll-dorothy-anne-1890-1957 "MOWLL, Dorothy Anne (1890-1957)"] in ''Australian Dictionary of Evangelical Biography'' (2022)</ref> 

Dorothy Mowll died before her husband on 23 December 1957, leaving an estate in England valued at £10,236.<ref>"MOWLL Dorothy Anne of Darling Point Sydney New South Wales Australia" in ''Wills and Administrations (England and Wales) 1958'' (London: High Court, 1959), p. 639</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Anglican Diocese of Sydney]]
* [[History of Anglicanism in Sichuan|Anglicanism in Sichuan]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commonscat-inline}}

{{Anglican Missionary Bishops in China 1849-1949}}
{{Archbishops of Sydney}}
{{Primates of Australia}}
{{Christianity in Sichuan}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mowll, Howard}}
[[Category:1890 births]]
[[Category:1958 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Anglican bishops in China]]
[[Category:Alumni of King's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Anglican archbishops of Sydney]]
[[Category:Anglican missionaries in Sichuan]]
[[Category:Anglican missionary bishops in China]]
[[Category:Anglican bishops of Western China]]
[[Category:Evangelical Anglican bishops]]
[[Category:People educated at The King's School, Canterbury]]
[[Category:Primates of the Anglican Church of Australia]]