Harold Davidson - Student Days

Student Days

Davidson's father wanted him to join the priesthood, and he enlisted the help of influential friends to push his son towards that calling. Davidson had intended being ordained but had undergone a crisis of conscience due to church opposition to the work of the Toynbee Hall Mission in the East End of London. After three years he realised the stage was not a very conscientious way of life for him and, having saved enough to begin studies, he entered Exeter College, Oxford.

Davidson was allowed to continue his stage career while he studied Theology. However, due to his absences and exam failure, Exeter required him to leave in 1901. Davidson obtained a place at Grindle's Hall instead, where he obtained a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in the normal five-year span, though half of his time was spent away from college.

He joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society, where he formed a lifelong friendship with Reginald Kennedy-Cox who would later found the Dockland Settlement in the East End. They used to arrange gatherings of artists for Sunday teas in Kennedy-Cox's rooms and at one of these Davidson met his future wife. He stood out in debates and his views on church reform caught the eye of the Bishop of Stepney, Arthur Winnington-Ingram who later became Bishop of London and was to remain one of Davidson's supporters at the trial and until Davidson's death. He also became president of the Oxford University Chess Club, organising tours against other universities and representing Oxford in the annual chess matches against Cambridge in 1901, 1902 and 1903.