T. A. (Thomas Alexander) Lacey

Born in Nottingham in 1853, Thomas Alexander Lacey studied at Balliol College, Oxford, after winning a scholarship as a teenager. At Oxford he became friends with Charles Gore, and after university he taught at Wakefield Grammar School before entering ordained ministry in the Church of England.

Lacey was ordained deacon in 1876 and priest two years later. He became known as an Anglican divine, controversialist, and church writer with a strong interest in the reunion of the Church of England with Rome. Over a long career he published widely on theology, church law, liturgy, and ecclesiastical history, and in 1918 he was made Canon of Worcester.

He wrote in a learned but active, public-facing way, contributing journalism as well as books, and his bibliography shows just how wide his interests were. Alongside his theological works, he is also associated with hymnody, including a well-known early-20th-century translation of “O come, O come, Emmanuel.”