Rev L C Hamerton
Priest-in-Charge 1902-1904

Rev Lawrence Collingwood Hamerton was the first priest-in-charge of the original "temporary" All Saints Church in Basingstoke. He was born in 1867 in Warwickshire and was the son of  Rev Samuel Collingwood Hamerton who was the Vicar of St Paul's, Warwick from 1866. Samuel C Hamerton is credited with the music and lyrics to "Waken! Christian Children" (1861), and may also be responsible for the words to "O Let Us All, Rejoicing". By the 1871 Census, Rev Samuel and his family are living in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight where his occupation is recorded as "clergyman without the cure of souls". Rev S C Hamerton died in Shanklin in 1872 aged 38.

Lawrence Collingwood Hamerton became a boarder at Marlborough College, Wiltshire from where he went up to Magdalen College, Oxford in 1886 . He was awarded a BA three years later. The April 1891 Census shows him living in Elland, Yorkshire  with his two maiden aunts.  His occupation at that time is recorded as "Living on own means". However, newspaper announcements in October that year report the marriage in Elland of Rev L C Hamerton to Mary Blanche Musson the only daughter of Rev F Musson, Rector of Elland. He had been made a Deacon by the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol in 1891, and Priested two years later. Rev Laurence and Mary moved to Wiltshire that year on Laurence's appointment as curate at Highworth with Sevenhampton, where their daughter, Beryl, was born the following year (1892). Rev Hamerton subsequently served as a Curate in Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire from 1894 to 1895.

Recprds show that six months after their daughter's birth, Rev L C Hamerton and his wife are found on the passenger list of the SS Arawa sailing from Southampton to Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Two years later the couple are again listed as passengers on the same route (this time accompanied by Miss Hamerton), and Laurence serves as Chaplain at Orotava on Tenerife for four years to 1898.

The Hamerton family moved to Basingstoke (quite a change from Tenerife), where their son, Bernard was born in February 1899 with Laurence now one of the parish Curates.  The 1901 Census shows the Hamertons, together with their cook, parlour maid, nurse and under nurse, living at 'Normanhurst' in Cliddesden Road. The 8th November 1902 report in the Hants & Berks Gazette describing the opening of the "All Saints' Temporary Church" confirms that "... Rev L C Hamerton will be mainly responsible for the services at All Saints'". Rev Hamerton left Basingstoke in 1904 to become the Vicar of Ashbury in Berkshire.

The 1911 Census shows that the Hamerton family were then living in the Vicarage at Ashbury. From 1913 to 1929, Rev Hamerton served as the Vicar of Upper Beeding, Sussex, and as Rector of Bramber with Botolph. It appears that he retired from clergy duties after this point and moved to Hove, where he passed away in October 1932.