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Born on 19 April 1885 in Bournemouth, Eric Campbell Douglas was one of the younger sons of
Dr Justyn George Durham Douglas, M.D., J.P., and
Augusta May Douglas (née Ram) — a family of wide-reaching public service, where nearly every sibling found their calling across the British Empire, in the pulpit, the civil service, or the field.
Eric’s education began at Sherborne Preparatory School and continued at Sherborne School, where he was a day boy from January 1899 to August 1904. Marked by his academic diligence, he rose to the Sixth Form, before moving on to Queens’ College, Cambridge, where he read theology. His sense of vocation was confirmed with ordination in 1908, and the path of a parish priest — and eventually army chaplain — lay ahead.
With the outbreak of the First World War, Eric responded not with arms but with spiritual support, joining the Army Chaplains’ Department. He was attached to the 15th Battalion, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (K.O.Y.L.I.), ministering to soldiers amidst the devastation of the Western Front with the British Expeditionary Force. His dedication and courage were recognised with two mentions in despatches, an honour few non-combatants received, reflecting the esteem in which his service was held. He continued in military chaplaincy until 1926, a remarkable period spanning both war and post-war recovery among the ranks.
In 1933, Eric married Enid Elizabeth Chetwynd, the daughter of Henry Goulburn Willoughby Chetwynd and Eva Constance Elizabeth Fanny Berney — a Norfolk family of old landed and clerical lineage. Their union brought Eric deeper into the Norfolk landscape, where he would spend much of his later life.
He returned to parochial ministry in the interwar years, serving as Vicar of Bradford Abbas (1934–1937), and from there was appointed
Vicar of St Peter’s, Rochester (1937–1947). His leadership of that urban parish encompassed the tumult of the Second World War, ministering through air raids, rationing, and resilience — and offering constancy when the world was anything but.
In 1947, he was appointed Rector of St Mary’s, Tittleshall, near King’s Lynn in
Norfolk, a return to quiet rural ministry. There, among flint churches
and open skies, he and Enid settled into village life at their home, Pightle,
in Barnham Broom.
Eric Campbell Douglas died on 12 July 1971, aged 86, and was buried at Bracon Ash, Norfolk — his final resting place in a county whose pastoral rhythms he had come to know well. His was a life of thoughtful devotion, shaped by scholarship, wartime sacrifice, and enduring service to his parishioners in peace and in peril.
See also:
•
The Douglas Brothers at Sherborne School
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Source
This article is drawn from research by Rachel Hassall, Sherborne, Dorset.
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