The Diaries of Edward Lee Hicks, Bishop of Lincoln 1910-1919

Bishop Edward Lee Hicks kept a diary throughout his episcopate at Lincoln, from 1910 to 1919. The two foolscap volumes from which this book is edited offer an honest picture of the daily life of a bishop in the period immediately before and during the first world war, a portrait of church and society in a largely rural diocese in the last phase before the radical transformation which the `Great War' hastened. Bishop Hicks had special interest in women’s suffrage, the Labour movement and temperance reform; in church affairs he was an advocate of liberal theology and biblical criticism, the development of women’s work, a social gospel, and co-operation with the nonconformists; he was also President of the Peace League throughout the period covered by the diaries. The diary presents a largely church-centred picture; but it is also valuable as a personal view of such matters as Lincolnshire social life including the impact of war on the county, conditions of travel at the beginning of the era of the motor car, characteristics of the clergy, and frequent comment on items of archaeological and antiquarian interest.