Official Yearbook of the Church of England 1938 – Digital Download or CD

Step back to 1938 — the coronation year of King George VI is behind us, storm clouds are gathering over Europe, and the Church of England stands at the heart of national life. The Official Yearbook of the Church of England was the definitive annual reference for the Established Church, and this 1938 edition captures it in extraordinary detail: every diocese, every cathedral, every parish, and thousands of clergy, from Archbishops to country curates.

For family historians with Anglican clergy, chaplains, missionaries or church office-holders in the family tree, this is one of the most valuable resources available for the late 1930s.

What's Inside — Section by Section

• Archbishops, Bishops & the Episcopate — the full hierarchy of the Church, from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York down to every diocesan and suffragan bishop
• Dioceses A–Z — each diocese listed alphabetically, with its cathedral, archdeacons, rural deaneries and an alphabetical parish-by-parish list of incumbents and curates
• Cathedral Establishments — deans, chapters, canons, precentors and minor canons of England's ancient cathedrals
• The Church Assembly — the Church's governing body (predecessor to the General Synod), with its Houses of Bishops, Clergy and Laity
• Boards, Councils & Committees — the administrative machinery of the Church at national level
• Chaplaincies — armed forces, hospital, prison, school and seafarers' chaplains, often the only record of where a clergyman served
• Missionary & Colonial Dioceses — Anglican dioceses across India, Africa, the Far East and beyond, ideal for tracing missionary ancestors
• Church Schools, Colleges & Theological Institutions — training colleges and church schools nationwide
• Religious Orders & Communities — Anglican brotherhoods and sisterhoods
• Church Societies & Organisations — the Church Missionary Society, SPCK, Mothers' Union, Girls' Friendly Society and many more
• Statistical Tables — clergy numbers, confirmations and church attendance across every diocese

Bridging the Census Gap

This edition is especially precious because of what doesn't survive from this era:

• The 1921 census is the latest full English census available
• The 1931 census for England & Wales was destroyed by fire in 1942
• No census was taken in 1941 due to the Second World War
• The 1939 Register (September 1939) partially bridges the gap

That leaves a near twenty-year hole in census coverage — and the 1938 Yearbook sits squarely inside it, pinning every clergyman to a specific parish, chaplaincy or post at a moment otherwise poorly documented.

Famous Names Between Its Pages

The 1938 edition features some of the most significant churchmen of the twentieth century, including:

• Cosmo Gordon Lang — Archbishop of Canterbury
• William Temple — Archbishop of York, and wartime successor at Canterbury
• Arthur Winnington-Ingram — Bishop of London for nearly four decades
• Hensley Henson — the celebrated and controversial Bishop of Durham
• Ernest Barnes — the former mathematician turned Bishop of Birmingham
• George Bell — Bishop of Chichester, campaigner and confidant of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Geoffrey Fisher — then Bishop of Chester, future Archbishop of Canterbury
• Hewlett Johnson — the famous "Red Dean" of Canterbury

…alongside thousands of ordinary parish clergy — perhaps including your ancestor.

Easy to Navigate, Search & Read

• scanned images of the complete original book
• Alphabetical organisation — dioceses are arranged A–Z with parishes alphabetical within each, so you can browse directly to the place you need
• OCR on the fly — modern PDF readers automatically recognise the scanned text, letting you search and copy without any extra software
• Built-in Google Lens support — on desktop PCs, use Google's built-in tools to translate the text into other languages or have it read aloud with text-to-speech
• Just open the PDF — no specialist software or technical knowledge required

Requirements: any standard PDF reader. CD version requires a CD/DVD drive.