Stained Glass of Percy Bacon & Brothers

There are at least three Percy Bacon windows in St Aidan's, two of which are represented here. A third two light window depicting Christ the Good Shepherd, probably installed at the same time as the double lancet in memory of the Rev A. F. Sim of 1897. This will be added when photographs are obtained. This window is also by Percy Bacon & Brothers. The canopies and side columns are identical to the other double lancet recorded here. Thanks to Dave Webster who provided the photos of the windows.

East Window. Christ in Majesty. Ephesians Ch 4 Vs 8-11.
Photo © Dave Webster.

East window - Place holder.

East Window:
Photo © Dave Webster

Posted 30 July 2025.

The east window consists of three tall, wide lancets high above the reredos. The subjects chosen are from Ephesians Chapter 4, verses 8-11. At the top of the centre light is a representation of Christ in Majesty surrounded by angels above and at the top of the lights either side. Below Christ at the prophets, and in the middle sections of the outer lights are (left) two apostles and two evangelists - St Peter, St Andrew, St Paul and St John - and (right) two bishops, a king, and a saintly cleric. One bishop appears to be St Aidan. He holds a book on which a miniature stag sits. To his right stands a saintly king - probably representing St Oswald, King of Northumbria. Below them a saint in modern clerical robes, and another bishop. In the lower parts of the lights are representations of the following:

Left: St Paul and St John confirming in Samaria.
Centre: St Paul and St Luke writing an epistle from prison in Rome.
Right: St Timothy being instructed by his mother, Eunice.

The window is a memorial to the Rev A. F. Sim who was a missionary priest working for the Universities' Mission to Central Africa. The Rev Sim is also memorialised in a two-light lancet in the south aisle (see below). The window was unveiled by Canon George Body who also read the eulogy on 29th October 1896.¹

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Memorial to the Rev. A. F. Sim, depicting incidents in the Universities' Mission to Central Africa.
Photo © Dave Webster.

Detail of the right light with likeness of the Rev. A. F. Sim.

Detail of the left light with likeness of Bishop Edward Steere holding a model of Christ Church Cathedral, Zanzibar.

North Aisle Window: Memorial to Rev. Arthur Fraser Sim.
Photo © Dave Webster

This window, of two plain lancets, is a memorial to the Rev. Arthur Fraser Sim, who was a missionary priest serving with the Universities' Mission to Central Africa at Kota Kota. Previously he had been incumbent at St John's, Sunderland, and St Aidan's, Hartlepool.² It was given by the freemasons of the borough (the Rev Sim being a freemason). The window represents incidents in the history of the mission. On the right is a likeness of the Rev Sim, Portrait of the Rev. Arthur Fraser Sim by T. Braybrook.
Life and Letters of Arthur Fraser Sim. 1897. Public Domain Image

baptising a penitent native murderer of a Makau soldier who was under the sentence of execution. This man had been spared until he had received the Christian Faith, and "... went cheerfully and hopefully to his death".³ To the Rev. Sim's right stands a "native Christian teacher" holding a native bowl as a font.⁴ Behind the group of figures is a mud hut with a grass roof, possibly the one the Rev Sim built at Kota Kota, (Nkhotakota) Malawi.⁵ Outside the hut stands a turbaned man the symbolism of which is uncertain, but it may be a reference to the Jumbes of Nkhotakota who were Swahili Arab ivory and slave traders. The Rev Sim died of a fever, most likely malaria, on 29th October 1895, a little less than eighteen months after taking up his post.^{6 7} The scene is enclosed in a typical Bacon architectonic canopy with wide columns.

The left light represents two figures contained within an identical niche. On the left stands a cleric holding a model of Christ Church, Zanzibar, Christ Church, Zanzibar, Late 19th century.

built in 1880 to plans by C. F. Hayward. This second likeness is Bishop Edward Steere, Portrait of Bishop Edward Steere from A Memoir of Edward Steere, D.D., LL.D., by Robert Marshall Heanley (1898). Office of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, London.
Public Domain Image

the cathedral's Clerk of Works. He holds dividers in his right hand emblematic of the freemason's craft. To bishop Steere's right stands a native cleric holding a bible and crozier. It is unclear who this may represent. In each corner of the lights are further masonic symbols.

The dedication reads: "Erected to the memory of A. F. Sim by his masonic brethren. 1897".

The window is signed with the Bacon shield.

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1. Northern Echo - Friday 30 October 1896, p3. Canon George Body, D.D.Canon Missioner of the Diocese of Durham wrote the preface to Life and Letters of Arthur Fraser Sim (see note 2 below).
2. Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail - Monday 15 February 1897, p3. Report on the unveiling of the window.
3. A. E. M. Anderson-Morhead: History of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa 1859 - 1909, p281.
4. As described in the Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail - Monday 15 February 1897, p3.
5. A. E. M. Anderson-Morhead: History of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa 1859 - 1909, p279.
6. Ibid, p280.
7. Life and Letters of Arthur Fraser Sim, 1897, p42. Published by the Universities' Mission to Central Africa. The report of his death reads; "... particulars of his last illness were received from his fellow-worker, Mr. J. G. Philipps. On October 18th he had an attack of jaundice; later, an attack of fever supervening, his condition became hopeless, and he passed away in the very early morning of Oct. 29th, 1895....". It is likely that consultation with Canon Body and this book informed Percy Bacon's designs for the windows.

1. For more information about the Universities' Mission to Central Africa see the Wikipedia page.
2. See also; Life and Letters of Arthur Fraser Sim, 1897. Published by the Universities' Mission to Central Africa.