HERITAGE The Carrington Brothers
When Charles Walter Carrington i arrived in Christchurch in 1903 to take up the position of Principal of Christ’s College Upper Department, he had as fellow passengers his wife, Margaret Constance (Connie), and his sons Philip, Christopher, Charles Edmund and daughter Joan Margaret. ii Arthur Hugh, who had chickenpox followed later with the governess Miss Flora Cogan.
All four boys attended Christ’s College as well as New Zealand- born Gerard Nelson. Joan and her sister Constance Mary (Molly) walked down the road to St Margaret’s College in Cranmer Square. iii There were eleven students in residence when Carrington arrived, and they and the family lived at College House which was on the corner of Rolleston Avenue and Cashel Street. iv Philip and Gerard would later join the students there. v Philip (2080) (1903-1908) and Christopher (2081) (1903-1909) were immediately enrolled at Christ’s College and Hugh (2110) (1903-1911) followed later the same month. Charles Edmund (2188, (1904-1914) overlapped briefly with Gerard (2780) (1914- 1923). All except Philip were in South Town and Charles spent some time in Flower’s House. Philip Carrington Philip’s story is told with much sensitivity by Colin Cuttell. The subtitle Pastor, Prophet, Poet captures some of the breadth of the priest who would become the Metropolitan of Canada. viii Philip’s time at Christ’s College began in Charles Carteret Corfe’s last year as Headmaster and continued under Christopher Hudson Moreland. By 1908 he was Academic Head of School having been placed 1st in Latin, Greek and
The Carrington Family at College House. L–R: Christopher, Miss Cogan, Philip, Charles, Charles Walter, Hugh, Guy Thomas vi , Joan, Connie. Canterbury Museum 2012.61.3 vii
Mathematics, 2nd in English and Divinity and 3rd in French. He was, like his brothers that would follow him, a member of the College Cadets, and he was also involved in debating. In his final year he came 7th on the Credit List in the Junior University Scholarships, but more importantly for his subsequent life, on 15 August, at the time of his Confirmation by Bishop Julius, he made the decision to be ordained. At Canterbury University College he completed a BA, was awarded the Macmillan Prize for poetry, and convicted and discharged for having distributed dodgers ix as part of the College celebrations. This brush with the law was not his
only one, he had previously been fined 7/- and costs for riding his bicycle on a footpath. x In 1910 he became a leader at the St Michael’s Scout Group, an involvement that would stay with him for the rest of his life. He and his troop, sent the last message in semaphore from land to the Terra Nova and Captain Robert Falcon Scott as it left Lyttelton for the Antarctic. England beckoned and St Stephen’s House, Oxford. But Philip discovered that this was not the best place for him to be, so with a Patteson Missionary Studentship he transferred to Selwyn College, Cambridge. It was agreed that he would take
Christ’s College Canterbury
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