H. R. (Hugh Reginald) Haweis

Born in Egham, Surrey, Hugh Reginald Haweis was an English cleric, lecturer, and writer whose career reached well beyond the pulpit. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, then traveled in Italy and is reported in standard reference works to have served with Garibaldi before returning to England for ordination.

Haweis became especially known as the incumbent of St James's, Marylebone, where he built a reputation as a popular preacher and public speaker. He also wrote widely, especially on music, religion, and social questions, and his interests gave his work an unusually broad, conversational feel for a Victorian author.

He was married to the writer and designer Mary Eliza Haweis, and their son Stephen Haweis became a painter. For readers today, he stands out as one of those 19th-century literary figures whose religious writing was closely tied to the wider cultural life of his time.