Hedley Sparks: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|British biblical scholar and Catholic priest}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}

Sparks was born on 14 November 1908 in [[Stoke Newington]], [[County of London]].<ref name="obit - PBA">{{cite journal|last1=Brock|first1=Sebastian P.|title=Hedley Frederick Davis Sparks, 1908–1996|journal=Proceedings of the British Academy|year=1998|volume=101|pages=513–536|url=http://www.britac.ac.uk/pubs/proc/files/101p513.pdf}}</ref> He was the only child of the Revd Frederick Sparks (1847–1908) and his second wife, Blanche Barnes.<ref name="Oxford DNB">{{cite web|last1=Livingstone|first1=Elizabeth A.|title=Sparks, Hedley Frederick Davis (1908–1996)|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/64018|website=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|publisher=Oxford University Press|accessdate=24 August 2015|year=2004}}</ref> His father died 5 weeks before his son's birth, at the age of 61.<ref name="obit - PBA" /> He was educated at [[St Edmund's School]], then an all-boys [[IndependentPrivate schoolschools in the (United Kingdom)|independentprivate school]] in [[Canterbury]], Kent. His school fees and living costs were paid for by the [[Clergy Orphan Corporation]].<ref name="Oxford DNB" /> In February 1927, he successfully underwent an exam and interview to win a scholarship to [[Brasenose College, Oxford]]: he was the only candidate that year.<ref name="obit - PBA" /> He [[matriculated]] into Brasenose College in October 1927, and studied theology and music for the next three years.<ref name="obit - PBA" /> In 1930, he graduated from the [[University of Oxford]] with a [[first class honours]] Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in theology; he did not sit the [[final exams]] for music.<ref name="obit - Times">{{cite news|title=The Rev Professor Hedley Sparks|work=The Times|issue=65748|date=29 November 1996|page=23}}</ref><ref name="crockford">{{Crockford| surname =Sparks | forenames =Hedley Frederick Davis | id =19993 | accessed = 5 December 2015}}</ref>