Victor de Waal

Victor Alexander de Waal (born 2 February 1929)^[1] is a British Anglican priest. He was the Dean of Canterbury from 1976 to 1986.

Victor de Waal was born in Amsterdam, the son of Hendrik de Waal, a Dutch businessman, and Elisabeth of the Ephrussi family. His mother was born to a well-known Jewish family at the Ephrussi Palace in Vienna. Although she converted to Christianity this did not protect her from the racial policy of Nazi Germany.^[2] Before the outbreak of World War II, the family moved to Britain and stayed there after the war, though retaining for many years their Dutch citizenship.^[3]

The family came to live in Tunbridge Wells when he was a boy and he was educated at Tonbridge School and Pembroke College, Cambridge. His second cousin once removed was the Right Revd Hugo de Waal, Bishop of Thetford.^[4]

He served as chaplain of King's College, Cambridge from 1959 to 1963 and the University of Nottingham from 1963 to 1969,^[5] and chancellor of Lincoln Cathedral.

From 1976 to 1986, he served as the Dean of Canterbury.^[6][7]

He helped with the research into his family history by his son, Edmund de Waal, which culminated in the book The Hare with Amber Eyes.^[8]

De Waal is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Birmingham.^[9]

He married Esther Aline Lowndes-Moir, author (as Esther de Waal) of books on spirituality, especially Celtic. Among their sons are John de Waal, a barrister; Alex de Waal (born 1963), a writer on Africa; Edmund de Waal (born 1964), a ceramic artist; and Thomas de Waal (born 1966), a writer. He later separated from his wife.^[10]

• What is the Church, 1969, SCM Press.
• The Politics of Reconciliation - Zimbabwe's first decade, 1990

• Obituary of his cousin Hugo de Waal (1935–2007), former Bishop of Thetford.