Alan Don


Alan Campbell Don was a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, editor of the Scottish Book of Common Prayer, chaplain and secretary to Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury, from 1931 to 1941, Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons from 1936 to 1946 and Dean of Westminster from 1946 to 1959.

Early life and ordained ministry

Born into a manufacturing Dundee family, the son of Robert Bogle Don and Lucy Flora Campbell, he was educated at Rugby and Magdalen College, Oxford. Deciding the family business was not for him, studied for ordination at Cuddesdon College before becoming a curate in Redcar followed by an incumbency in Yorkshire.
There then followed a 10-year period as provost of the cathedral in his native city. In 1927 he commissioned Dundee architect Patrick Thoms to design his house.
From 1931 until 1941 he was secretary to Cosmo Gordon Lang and became a chaplain to King George V. Already the Speaker’s chaplain in 1941 he became a canon of Westminster Abbey as rector of St. Margaret's, Westminster, commonly called "the parish church of the House of Commons". His brother was Air Vice Marshal Francis Don.

Dean of Westminster

This was followed in 1946 by elevation to the post of Dean of Westminster, a post he was to hold for 13 years, a period which included the Queen's Coronation One other event in his time as Dean was the theft of the Stone of Scone just prior to the Coronation. As a Scot, Don felt this theft acutely and was important to the return of the Coronation Stone to Westminster.

Retirement

He retired to Canterbury where, although he was married, he and his wife met only once a week for lunch. He died on 3 May 1966.