Rev A H Tiorold
Priest-in-Charge 1904-1905

The second priest-in-charge of the original All Saints' Church in Basingstoke was Rev Algernon Herbert Thorold who was born in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight in 1872. Interestingly, at the time of his birth, the man who would become his predecessor as priest-in-charge of All Saints', Laurence C Hamerton (then aged 5) was also a resident of Shanklin. Coincidentally, although not ordained at the time of his birth, Algernon's father would  become a clergyman, as was Hamerton's father.

In 1881 the Thorold family were in Hove, Sussex where Algernon's father (Algernon Charles Edward Thorold) was a "clergyman without the cure of souls", having been ordained as a Deacon in 1873 by the Bishop of Chichester and made Priest in 1874. In 1895,r Rev Algernon C E Thorold was appointed Rector of Hougham in Lincolnshire after the position became vacant following the death of his uncle, Rev Henry Baugh Thorold. Rev A C E Thorold held this position until his death in January 1922.

Rev A E C Thorold appears in mnay newspaper articles relating to his work as Rector and Inspector of Schools, but also in March 1898 the Liverpool Echo and Birmingham Daily Post carried short report that read:

"At the Spittlegate (Grantham) Petty Sessions, the Rev. Algernon Thorold, vicar of Hougham, was convicted a second time of keeping a dog without a licence, and was fined 25s. For the defence it was contended the animal was a shepherd dog."

Back to the younger Algernon Herbert Thorold (who did not accumulate as much newspaper coverage as his father) - he attended Lancing College in Sussex and then went to Keble, Oxford. He was ordained as a Deacon in 1895 and made a Priest the following year as a curate at St Mark's, Regents Park, London where he served until moving to Basinbgstoke in 1899. The April 1901 Census records him as a "clergyman Church of England" living in Burgess Road with his housekeeper, Ellen Hall. In October of that year he marries Inez Theodora Beer at Hougham in a ceremony conducted by his father. The couple returned to Basingstoke for Algernon to continue his post as a parish  curate and priest-in-charge of All Saints'. Inez gave birth to a son,Michael Herbert, in 1905. An announcement in the Surrey Advertiser of April 7th 1906 repored that Rev Algernon Thorold has been appointed curate of Wonston, Micheldever. This short trerm appointment was followed by another at Stansted Mountfitchet in Essex from 1907 to 1908.

In April 1908, Rev Algernon was licensed as a curate at St Mary's, Truro. The following year he became curate in charge of St Martin's at  Mawgan-in-Meneage (described in a contemporary Kellys Directory as "... a parish on the River Hel." He was the Vicar of of Altarnun, a parish on the edge of Bodmin Moor for seven years until 1925 when was appointed Vicar of Gwennap, a hamlet about 5 miles from Redruth. Algernon remained in Gwennap until his death on Christmas Day 1931.

[Rev Thorold was not the only priest from Basingstoke  to "escape" to Cornwall. Rev Simon Cade, Team Vicar at All Saints' 1998-2005, left Basingstoke to become Rector of Redruth.]