Alfred Gurney

Born in England in 1843, Alfred Gurney was an Anglican clergyman as well as a poet and writer. He became vicar of St Barnabas, Pimlico, in London, where his church life and literary work were closely connected.

Gurney wrote religious verse and reflective prose, including A Christmas Faggot, Our Catholic Inheritance in the Larger Hope, Parsifal, a Festival Play by Richard Wagner: A Study, and Verses. His writing is associated with a devotional, symbolic style, and later readers have linked him with the artistic and religious atmosphere surrounding St Barnabas.

He is also remembered for his friendship with figures in the Rossetti circle, especially Christina Rossetti. Gurney died in 1898.