Henry White Memorial Window, Queen's Chapel of the Savoy, London WC1

The Henry White Memorial Window by Clayton and Bell, in the Queen's Chapel of the Savoy, unveiled on 11 October 1891 (according to the information provided in the chapel). Shown in more detail are the three figures at the top: Noah, with the ark, St John the Baptist (to whom the chapel is dedicated) and Moses, with the tablets of the Ten Commandments. Henry White (1833-90) was the Chaplain here from 1859 until the year of his death. He wrote the preface to John William Loftie's book about the Savoy Palace and its associated buildings, Memorials of the Savoy (1878). [Click on all the images to enlarge them.]

The central figure of the lower panels is Jesus, preaching outdoors to an attentive gathering, of people of all ages — probably a depiction of the Sermon on the Mount. On either side are dramatic scenes from the Old and New Testaments, not identified in the chapel's own information about the widow.

Note the Masonic symbol in the middle here, above the lower part of the central panel: White was evidently a Freemason. 1629 is not a date, but the lodge number of the United Lodge. The text from Isaiah, held by the two angels below, is: "Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off" (33, 17).

Photographs and text by Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to the Victorian Web or cite it in a print one.

Related Material

References

Loftie, William John. Memorials of the Savoy; the palace: the hospital: the chapel. With an appendix of original documents contributed by Charles Trice Martin and a pref. by Henry White. London: Macmillan, 1878. Internet Archive. Contributed by Robarts Library, University of Toronto. Web. 1 May 2017.

Created 1 May 2017