Reverend George Prothero and Mrs Emma Prothero

A carte-de-visite portrait of the Reverend George Prothero (1818-1894), from 1857 the Rector at Whippingham on the Isle of Wight. He was appointed Chaplain-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria in 1866.

Born on 18 March 1818, he was the son of Thomas Prothero of Newport, a solicitor who became involve in several legal battles with the prominent Welsh Chartist John Frost. Thomas graduated from Brasenose College in Oxford in 1843 and was ordained the same year. Between 1847 and 1853 he was the Vicar at Clifton-on-Teme in Worcestershire. In 1853 he became the Curate at Whippingham on the Isle of Wight, where Queen Victoria worshipped when she was at Osborne House. From 1857 he was the Rector at that church and in 1866 he was appointed the Queen’s Chaplain-in-Ordinary. From 1869 he was also a Canon of Westminster.

He married on 9 June 1846 at Ledbury in Herefordshire Emma Money-Kyrle (1822-1893), daughter of the Reverend William Money-Kyrle. The marriage produced at least five children, the eldest of whom was the historian and academic Sir George Walter Prothero.

Mrs Prothero died on 20 July 1893, aged 71. Reverend Canon George Prothero died at Whippingham Rectory on 16 November 1894, aged 76. He was buried in the churchyard of St Mildred’s, Whippingham. His effects were valued at £3217.

According to his obituary in The Times (17 November 1894): ‘[He] retained throughout his life the esteem and confidence of the Royal Family and of the Court and the Royal Household. […] He was a clergyman of moderate Church views and of wide social sympathies, and his loss will be felt by a large number of attached friends.’

Photographed by Edwin and Arthur Debenham of Ryde on the Isle of Wight.