Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Bousfield, Henry Brougham
BOUSFIELD, HENRY BROUGHAM (1832–1902), first bishop of Pretoria, born on 27 March 1832, was son of William Cheele Bousfield, barrister-at-law. Entering Merchant Taylors' School in 1840, he passed to Caius College, Cambridge, where he was exhibitioner, and graduated B.A. as junior optime in 1855 and M.A. in 1858. Ordained deacon in 1855 and priest in 1856, he was licensed to the curacy of All Saints', Braishfield, Hampshire, and became incumbent of the parish in 1856. From 1861 to 1870 he was rector of St. Maurice with St. Mary Kalendre and St. Peter Colebrook, Winchester, and in 1870 became vicar of Andover with Foxcote. In 1873 he was made rural dean of West Andover. From early boyhood Bousfield had been interested in missionary work, more especially in British colonies. After the Transvaal was separated in 1877 from the diocese of Bloemfontein, Bousfield accepted after a first refusal an offer of the new see from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. On 2 Feb. 1878 he was consecrated at St. Paul's, bishop of Pretoria, and landed at Durban on 17 Sept. He trekked to Pretoria, where he found about 3000 inhabitants, of whom 1500 were whites, and the church organisation only in embryo, the clergy numbering five. Bousfield's work was hindered by the Zulu war of 1879, and by the Boer war of 1880-1; but under the Boer republic Bousfield, avoiding political entanglement, continued the organisation of his diocese. He sought to meet the needs of the white population drawn by the goldfields, and extended missionary work amongst the natives. New difficulties from the Jameson raid arose in 1896; but when war with Great Britain broke out in 1899, the clergy of the diocese numbered thirty-two, and the white church members exceeded 18,000. From October 1899 to April 1901 Bousfield was a refugee in Natal, acting for a time as military chaplain, and rendering aid to distressed refugees. Despite failing health he attended the episcopal synod of South Africa (3-5 Feb.), but died suddenly at Capetown of heart disease on 9 Feb. 1902.
Bousfield was a man of high devotion; but extreme candour and his view of episcopal power sometimes strained his relations with his clergy. He married twice: (1) in 1861 Charlotte Elizabeth, daughter of Jonathan Higginson of Rock Ferry, Liverpool, who died in 1886; and (2) in 1888 Ellen, daughter of Thomas Lamb of Andover. He described his first six years of episcopal work in 'Six Years in the Transvaal' (1886).
[Guardian, 12 March 1902; Record, 14 Feb. 1902; Register of Merchant Taylors' School, 1883, ii. 278; Taylorian, April 1902; Lowndes, Bishops of the Day, 1897; Two Hundred Years of the S.P.G.]