Before I trained for Holy Orders at Westcott House I grew up in rural Cambridgeshire. I went on to be ordained in St Albans Cathedral, serving my curacy at All Saints’ Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire. During my title post I read a master’s degree in early modern history at Oriel College, researching wit and wordplay in the early modern sermon. There I met my wife, Alice, a classicist and ancient history graduate. I was the treasurer of the MCR and she the bar manager and together we made an undefeated croquet cuppers duo. After she graduated, Alice spent some time living in Venice and then moved to Battersea, which is why, in the summer of 2020 at one of their superb supper clubs, I proposed to her in a quiet corner of the Chelsea Physic Garden. 

Before we came to Chelsea I was Chaplain, Fellow and Tutor at Queens’ College, Cambridge, where I also got stuck in as Senior Treasurer of the Boat Club and the College Union, the Honorary Padre to the Cambridge University Officer Training Corps, a university vocations advisor and assistant priest at Little Saint Mary’s.

Now, alongside my duties at Chelsea Old Church, I keep some academic interest alive by writing a PhD on John Donne. I have swapped my blades for gardening shears and particularly prize roses and shrubs which generally behave themselves.

I’m profoundly honoured to have been appointed as the 75th Incumbent of this parish. Supported by your prayers and aided by the Holy Spirit I hope to continue the ministry of Chelsea Old Church by seeking to go further into the heart and mind of Christ.

Together we can do this by extending our ministry of hospitality and strengthening connections in the community; by deepening our worshiping life which is so beautifully enhanced by the ministry of music; and by engaging intellectually with the Christian tradition.

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Max
Max lighting a candle
Max praying in the church
Max with a bible
Max reading from the bible
Max's book of Common Prayer

Previous Vicars:

The Reverend Canon David P E Reindorp TD DL               2006-2021

The Reverend Doctor Peter D Elvy                               1992-2006

The Reverend Prebendary Clarke Edward Leighton Thomson  1951-1992

Further Back

Rectors:

  • Reginald de St Albans 1289–90 to 1299
  • Sir Robert de Starandone
  • Roger de Berners 1316
  • William de Bray  1316 to 1318–19
  • Nicholas Hosbounde 1318–19 to 1348
  • Martin de Moulish  1348
  • William Palmer  1368
  • Thomas de Preston  1368
  • John Basset  1368 to 1371
  • John Wright de Stansted  1371 to 1372
  • John de Foydon (v. Foxdon)  1372 to 1374
  • Richard Mokynton   1385
  • Richard Everdon  1385 to 1388
  • John Beaugraunt   1388 to 1392
  • John Bishop  1392 to 1394
  • John Balsham  1394 to 1394–5
  • Robert Orum  1394–5
  • John Cambridge  1406
  • Peter Hynewyk  1411
  • John Abbey  1411
  • Robert Broun  1413
  • Richard Cosyn  1413
  • John Scarburgh  1433
  • Geoffrey Medewe  1433 to 1435
  • Alexander Broun  1435 to 1442
  • Thomas Boleyn  1442
  • William Walesby  1450
  • William Lilly 1450 to 1451
  • Thomas Shalers 1451
  • William Fideon  1451 to 1454
  • John Pennant  1454 to 1455
  • William Hebbing  1455–6 to 1456
  • William Massanger  1456 to 1469–70
  • William Mille  1469 to 1481
  • John Mardelay  1481 to 1486
  • Thomas Machey, A.M. 1486 to 1492
  • George Percy alias Gard  1492
  • William Ingelard  1502
  • Robert Tunstall  1502 to 1503
  • Thomas Loworth  1503
  • Robert Dandie  1530
  • John Larke  1530 to 1543
  • Robert Richardson  1543 to 1554
  • James Proctor  1554
  • Richard Myers  1554 to 1558
  • Matthew Myers  1558
  • Robert Richardson   Restored
  • John Churchman 1569 to 1574
  • Thomas Browne, S.T.B.1574 to 1585
  •  (fn. 2) Richard Ward 1585 to 1615
  • George Hambden, A.M.1615 to 1632
  • Samuel Wilkinson  1632 to 1669
  • Adam Littleton, D.D.  1669–70 to 1694
  • John King, D.D.  1694 to 1732
  • Sloane Elsmere  1732 to 1766
  • Reginald Heber  1766 to 1770
  • Thomas Drake, LL.D.1770 to 1775
  • W. Bromley Cadogan, M.A.1775 to 1797
  • Charles Sturgess, M.A.1797 to 1805
  • Hon. G. V. Wellesley  1805 to 1832
1819 St. Luke’s takes over as parish church and Chelsea Old Church becomes a chapel of ease
  • John William Lockwood, M.A.1832 to 1836
  • Charles Kingsley, M.A.1836 to 1860
  • A. Gerald W. Blunt, M.A.1860 to 1901
  • Archdeacon H. E. J. Bevan, M.A.1902 to 1916

Source: ‘Appendix: Rectors and incumbents’, Survey of London: volume 7: Chelsea, part III: The Old Church (1921), pp. 84-85 

Incumbents:

  • John Rush, LL.B. 1832 to 1855
  • Robert Henry Davies, M.A. 1855 to 1908
  • Sherburne Povah Tregelles Prideaux, M.A. 1908 to 1912
  • Malcolm Stuart Farmer, M.A. 1912 to 1916
  • Weston Henry Stewart, M.A.1916 to 1927
  • A. W. Deakin  1927
  • J. H. T. Maude-Roxby  1927-1934
  • Ralph. E. Sadleir    1934-1946
  • David H. A. Williams 1947-1950
  • C. E. Leighton Thompson 1950 – 1951
Chelsea Old Church regained its status as a parish church in 1951