S. E. Cottam
British writer and priest
Samuel Elsworth Cottam (7 August 1863 – 30 March 1943) was an English poet and Anglican priest.
Biography
Cottam was born in Upper Broughton, Salford, in 1863. He graduated from Exeter College, Oxford, in 1885, where he was a friend of Edwin Emmanuel Bradford. He was a lifelong Anglo-Catholic, unlike Bradford who later became a Modernist. Cottam and Bradford were co-Chaplains of St George's Anglican Church in Paris, France. He was later incumbent at Wootton, Vale of White Horse, where John Betjeman and W. H. Auden went to see him celebrate sung mass.
Will
In his will, Cottam left trust funds for "the purchase of objects of beauty for the furtherance of religion in ancient gothic churches". This trust is now administered by the Friends of Friendless Churches and has been used to benefit many dozens of churches in England and Wales, by the addition of furnishings, stained glass and bells.
Bibliography
A Lantern for Lent: Brief Instructions on Biblical Subjects for the Forty Days of Lent. London.
The public source identifies “S. E. Cottam” as british writer and priest. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Cottam, British and writer.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7387456. VIAF identifies the subject as 48909088. The Library of Congress control number is no2003005419. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1863, 1943 and 1885.
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This entry incorporates text from “S. E. Cottam” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.