Lionel Berners Cholmondeley (11 December 1858 – 21 January 1945) was an ordained Anglican priest, educator, historian and Rector of St. Barnabas' Church at
Ushigome in
Shinjuku, Tokyo.[1] For thirty years he served as a minister in the
Anglican Church in Japan, and variously as a lecturer at
Waseda University and honorary chaplain to the
British Embassy in Tokyo. As a historian he published the first English-language history of the
Bonin Islands, now known as the
Ogasawara Islands.
After graduation from Oxford and following in the footsteps of both his father and elder brother Francis, Lionel Cholmondeley followed a path to ordination in
Church of England.[3]
In July 1902, Cholmondeley succeeded Archdeacon
Alexander Croft Shaw as honorary chaplain to the
British Embassy, Tokyo,[7] a position he held until his retirement and return to England in 1922.[8]
Bonin Islands
Bishop Bickersteth was asked to send a clergyman to visit the English-speaking settlers on the Ogasawara Islands; and in response, he asked Cholmondely to sail to the islands in 1894. This initial trip was followed by sixteen others during the remainder of Cholmondeley's time in Japan.[9]
Among other changes he observed during these years was the completion of undersea cable connections which ensured telegraph communication between the islands and Japan after 1906.[9]
In 1915, Cholmondeley published The History of the Bonin Islands from the Year 1827 to the Year 1876 which included detailed observations of the changes which evolved after annexation by
Meiji Japan in 1875.[9]
Chronology
1894—1st visit. Cholmondeley joins Anglican
catechist Ishida-san, who had come by previous steamer. This Japanese colleague returned with Cholmondeley to Tokyo.[9]
1896—2nd visit. Cholmondeley joins Cameron Johnson, who was staying there at the time. The School-house built this year by settlers.[9]
Bickersteth, Samuel. (1899) Life and letters of Edward Bickersteth, Bishop of South Tokyo. London: Sampson, Low Marston.
Cholmondeley, Lionel Berners. (1915). The History of the Bonin Islands from the Year 1827 to the Year 1876. London: Constable & Co.
OCLC 4717954
Ion, A. Hamish. (1997). "Lionel Berners Cholmondeley: Chaplain in Tokyo, 1887–1921," pp. 180–189 in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits (
Ian Nish, editor). London:
Routledge.
ISBN978-1-873410-62-2
Ruvigny et Raineval, Melville Henry Massue. (1994). The Blood Royal of Britain. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company.
ISBN978-0-8063-1431-0;
OCLC 30572546