Vicar sues for libel

When great men fall out, the implications can be far reaching as was demonstrated eighty years ago when the Vicar of Bourne sued one of his churchwardens for libel, a misguided action that created a rift between church and town that took many years to heal.

The vicar was Canon John Grinter, one of the most hard-working clergymen in the history of the Abbey Church where he was vicar for sixteen years from 1919 until 1935. He took an active interest in all aspects of community life, religious, sporting, social and educational, but his career was tarnished by this misguided lawsuit that may have hastened his departure.

His people’s warden was Cecil Walker Bell, of Bourne House in West Street, a successful solicitor and descendant of an eminent legal family that had practised in the town since the early 19th century, for fifty years a pillar of the community who was also the district coroner, registrar, clerk to various local authorities, county court bailiff and former commanding officer of the town’s contingent of the Lincolnshire Regiment Volunteers, and so there was great consternation when in 1933, the vicar claimed damages for libel.

The cause of the disagreement had occurred three years before when Major Bell, who liked to adopt his military rank, wrote two letters, one to the vicar and the other to the Bishop of Lincoln, claiming that £100 [£6,000 at today's value] given to the vicar by a parishioner for the church’s repair fund had in fact been kept for his own use. The bishop questioned the validity of the accusation and advised him to withdraw the allegation and any imputation of the vicar’s honour but he refused.

Canon Grinter put the matter in the hands of his solicitors and Major Bell then offered to make amends by publishing an apology in the newspapers but the vicar refused and the libel case came up before Mr Justice Finlay at Lincolnshire Assizes on Wednesday 14th June 1933 with a hearing before a jury that lasted for three days.

Canon Grinter employed one of the leading lawyers of the day, Mr Norman Birkett, a King’s Counsel, while Major Bell was similarly represented by Mr H H Joy, also a KC.

Mr Birkett told the judge: “It is regrettable that this action should be brought but it is right to say that for the vicar, this is a matter of life and death. He seeks that vindication of his character which alone can make life worth living for him. Canon Grinter said this thing had been proclaimed from the housetops and had been a topic of controversy for years. He merely seeks to vindicate himself.”

Mr Birkett said that although Major Bell had made the gravest mistake, he was not man enough to admit it and the situation continued until the vicar was compelled to issue a writ threatening proceedings and the result was that a public apology was finally offered. “At this moment”, he added, “despite everything, Canon Grinter bears not the smallest trace of animosity to Major Bell at all. He is a peace loving man. This action was not brought out of vindictiveness.

“You, members of the jury, men and women of the world, will be saying sarcastically to yourselves: ‘How these Christians love one another.’ There is a much more important reason than vindictiveness why this action is before you. The vicar of a church feels that his honour has got to be saved. His reputation and his character are the only things that make him an efficient servant of the church and unless his honour and character are left quite clear, there is nothing in the world – money, position, anything – that is of the smallest value.”

The libel action specifically concerned the letters written by Major Bell but when Canon Grinter went into the witness box, it soon became clear that there had been differences between the two men on a number of church issues for some time before that. Nevertheless, Canon Grinter told the judge that he had no animosity towards Major Bell who had been of great help to him in previous years but as a result of the trouble that had since arisen, his health was desperate and his mind had been practically a blank since Christmas.

On Friday 16th June, the third day of the hearing, after retiring for just over an hour, the jury returned a verdict in favour of the vicar and awarded him £5 in damages with costs. But the judge then described the case as “most discreditable and squalid”. He said that the damages could not be regarded as contemptuous though they were not generous. “I have disliked trying this as much as any case I remember”, he said. “The parties have a perfect right to come here for a verdict at your hands but it is a most unhappy thing that this action should ever have been fought.”

Back in Bourne, the consequences of the case were not yet over. Canon Grinter resigned as vicar blaming "the effects of the heavy burden of overwork" and in 1935 left to live at Stonesfield, Oxfordshire where he died in May 1938, aged 82. His body was brought back to Bourne for burial in the town cemetery after a funeral at the Abbey Church which was packed with mourners, including local clergymen and members of the leading families and organisations in the town, but the lawsuit was still fresh in everyone’s mind.

Meanwhile, Major Bell never entered the Abbey Church again. From 1914, he had been an active worker at parochial and diocesan level as well as being a lay reader and chorister. But after the libel hearing, he preferred to worship with the non-conformist communities in the town, mainly at the Methodist Chapel in Abbey Road, and in his declining years, he left Bourne in 1940 and never returned, retiring to Eastbourne where he died on Friday 7th February 1947, aged 78.

This clash of personalities that ended in an ignominious court case therefore cost this town two of its most respected citizens because of a dispute that might easily have been settled amicably with a handshake over a glass of wine.