Downland Echoes

Victor Lorenzo Whitechurch was born on the 12th March 1868 in Norham, Northumberland.He was educated at Chichester Grammar School and Chichester Theological College and thereafter took positions as curate before becoming the vicar of St. Michael's, Blewbury in 1904. By 1913 he became Chaplain to the Bishop of Oxford, and an honorary canon of Christ Church. In 1918 he became Rural Dean of Ayle.Although his name barely registers interest in these times he was a popular and well-known author perhaps best known for his fictional detective, Thorpe Hazell, who was featured in many periodicals of the day including the Strand Magazine, Railway Magazine, Pearson's and Harmsworth's Magazines.As well as being a vegetarian detective the stories were submitted to Scotland Yard to check for accuracy and faithfulness to then police procedures.Victor L Whitechurch died in Buxton, Derbyshire on the 26th May 1933.