James Tait Plowden-Wardlaw

Who is James Tait Plowden-Wardlaw?

The Revd James Tait Plowden-Wardlaw K.C. M.A. was Vicar of St Clement’s Cambridge and a barrister, an Old Malvernian and graduate of King's College, Cambridge, who served as an advocate in the Supreme Court of the Cape Colony, South Africa. He had been a curate at St George's, Beckenham.

Wardlaw was born in 1873, baptized on 28 Jan 1874, the son of James Campbell Wardlaw by his second wife Augusta Ellen Chichele-Plowden. He assumed the surname Plowden-Wardlaw by deed poll on 25 Feb 1901. Plowden-Wardlaw retired to Cambridge in 1953, and died 18 years later.

Plowden-Wardlaw was a member of the Royal Societies Club, his name appearing in the 1914 membership list.

The Revd Fr Ivan Clutterbuck recalls Plowden-Wardlaw at Beckenham: "He was an excellent preacher, no doubt due to his legal training. He did not cease demonstrating that the Church of England was a lawful part of the universal Catholic Church and our worship faithfully reflected this."