St Clair Donaldson

St Clair George Alfred Donaldson (11 February 1863 – 7 December 1935) was an English Anglican bishop.

[1] He narrowly missed representing Cambridge in the 1883 boat race, when having been selected stroke of the crew he fell ill and was forbidden to row by the doctors.

In 1891 Donaldson became vicar of St Mary's, Hackney Wick, and succeeded M. R. James as head of the Eton Mission from 1891 until 1900.

He gave much time and thought to the diocesan war memorial, which eventually took the form of St Martin's Hospital near the cathedral.

Donalson gave attention to moral causes of industrial unrest and the 'inward spiritual significance of the Labour movement', and he offered to mediate in the 1912 Brisbane general strike.

Donaldson spoke strongly on the question of justice to the aborigines, urging that a large tract of land should be handed to them which whites should not be allowed to occupy.

In 1921 he was appointed Bishop of Salisbury, and on his return to England was pronounced by Arthur Benson to be "a very fine, simple-minded, robust, sensible prelate".

Donaldson had a difficult task as chairman of the joint committee of the Canterbury convocation on "The Church and Marriage", which sat from 1931 until 1935.