The history of the parish and our church
History of the church - The stained-glass windows - The East Window
The East Window
The East Window is dedicated to the Reverend Alfred Hitch Ellis, vicar of St Mary Magdalene from 1909 to 1948.
Alfred Hitch Ellis obtained his degree at Cambridge University in 1890, and became a priest in 1896. He worked in Wakefield and abroad as a missionary (Winchester House, and Poozoondoung, Burma, 1893-1895). He was the curate of Chapelthorpe, Yorkshire between 1895 and 1897, and then worked as a chaplain at St John the Evangelist, Smyrna (Izmir in modern-day Turkey), from 1897 until 1900. He returned to England, becoming the curate at St Andrew’s, Luton, Bedfordshire from 1900 to 1906, before becoming the curate at Eaton, south of Norwich from 1906 until 1908.
He became the vicar of St Mary Magdalene in 1909, and lived at the vicarage, moving there from his home on North Walsham Road after the new vicarage was built on Silver Road.
Alfred Ellis died in Pevensey Bay, Sussex, in June 1948. Ronald Cooling succeeded him as vicar.
More information on Alfred Ellis's family can be found here.
http://norfolkstainedglass.org/St_Mary_Magdalen/home.shtm (there is little further information here, but the quality of the images of the window is excellent)
Crockford's Directory (1939, p. 409; 1949, p. 267)
The National Probate Calendar (1948)
