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| Hugh Plommer | |
|---|---|
| Name | Hugh Plommer |
| Birth date | 1898 |
| Birth place | London |
| Death date | 1973 |
| Death place | Oxford |
| Occupation | Clergyman; Chaplain; Author |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | King's College London; University of Oxford |
| Spouse | Mary Plommer |
Hugh Plommer was a British Anglican clergyman and military chaplain active in the first half of the 20th century. He combined parish ministry with service as a chaplain to British forces during the First World War and the Second World War, and later held academic and diocesan posts. Plommer's writings on pastoral care and wartime ministry influenced contemporaries in the Church of England, Royal Army Chaplains' Department, and Anglican theological circles.
Plommer was born in London into a family connected to the City of London mercantile community and received early schooling at a grammar school linked to St Paul's Cathedral. He read theology at King's College London, where he studied alongside contemporaries from Trinity College, Cambridge and Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and later completed postgraduate work at University of Oxford with tutors associated with Christ Church, Oxford and Mansfield College, Oxford. During his university years he encountered figures associated with the Oxford Movement and engaged with liturgical scholarship circulated through Cambridge University Press and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
Ordained in the Church of England in the early 1920s, Plommer served curacies in parishes influenced by the Ecclesiastical Society and the practices of Westminster Abbey clergy. He was appointed vicar in a diocesan benefice administered by the Diocese of London and later held a benefice under the patronage of the Church Mission Society. His parish work included collaboration with clergy trained at Ripon College Cuddesdon and pastoral officers from Mothers' Union, and he contributed articles to journals published by SPCK and the Church Times. Plommer lectured on pastoral theology at diocesan clergy schools affiliated with Lambeth Palace Library and advised bishops in the House of Bishops on pastoral responses to social issues of the interwar period.
Plommer first served as a chaplain attached to the British Army in the aftermath of the First World War and was later re-commissioned in the Royal Army Chaplains' Department during the Second World War. He ministered to units billeted near fronts influenced by campaigns like the North African Campaign and the Italian Campaign, working alongside medical officers from the Royal Army Medical Corps and remnants of formations such as the British Expeditionary Force. His wartime duties involved ecumenical cooperation with chaplains from the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force, and representatives of World Council of Churches member communions. Plommer kept field diaries and contributed pastoral reports to chaplains' conferences held under the auspices of Canterbury Cathedral and the Archbishop of Canterbury. He engaged with contemporary wartime relief organizations including Red Cross and Salvation Army detachments, and his experiences informed practical guides circulated among chaplains in the Imperial War Museum collections.
After demobilization Plommer resumed parish responsibilities and accepted appointments as an honorary canon attached to a cathedral chapter influenced by Durham Cathedral traditions. He taught pastoral theology in a theological college affiliated with Oxford University Press and consulted on liturgical revision projects associated with commissions convened at Lambeth Palace. In retirement he settled in Oxford where he participated in seminars at All Souls College, Oxford and contributed to commemorations organized by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Plommer continued to publish occasional essays on chaplaincy and pastoral care in periodicals circulated by SPCK and the Church of England Newspaper until his death in 1973.
Plommer was married to Mary Plommer, whose family had links to Keble College, Oxford and the Royal Free Hospital, and they had two children, one of whom entered ministry and the other civil service connected to the Foreign Office. His pastoral manuals and chaplaincy reflections were used as reference texts by successive cohorts of chaplains in the Royal Army Chaplains' Department and influenced training programs at institutions such as Westcott House, Cambridge and St Stephen's House, Oxford. Commemorations of his service have been noted at parish memorials maintained by the Church of England and in collections held by the Imperial War Museum and diocesan archives in London and Durham.
Category:British Anglican priests Category:Royal Army Chaplains' Department clergy