Stephen Moulsdale


Stephen Richard Platt Moulsdale was an Irish Anglican priest and academic administrator.

Biography

The eldest son of the Anglo-Irish Rev. T. H. P. Moulsdale, Rector of Ballysumaghan, Stephen Moulsdale was educated initially in Sligo followed by St Aidan's Theological College in Birkenhead. He was ordained in 1896 and became a curate at St Chad's Church in Everton. Later continuing his studies at Durham University as a member of Bishop Hatfield's Hall, he was granted an MA in Divinity in 1903. Moulsdale married Mary Frideswide, the daughter of Aysgarth School headmaster the Rev. C. T. Hales, in 1908. She died in 1933.

Career

In 1903 he was appointed Vice-Principal of St Chad's Hostel, Hooton Pagnell, and in 1904 was appointed Principal. Also in 1904, he was instrumental in founding St Chad's Hall at Durham University as a sister institution to the hostel, becoming its first principal, which he held concurrently with the hostel principalship. The hostel closed in 1916, with all teaching concentrated at the Durham institution, which in 1918 was renamed St Chad's College.
He remained principal of St Chad's College until 1937, serving concurrently as Vice-Chancellor of Durham University from 1934 to 1936.