William Henry Guillemard was a third cousin of Esther Hewlett.

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Born at Hackney on 23 November 1815, he was the son of Daniel Guillemard, a Spitalfields silk merchant of Huguenot descent, and Susan, daughter of Henry Venn of Payhembury, Devon. Educated at Christ’s Hospital School, he entered Pembroke College, Cambridge, in December 1833 and graduated B.A. in 1838. In the same year he won the Crosse Divinity Scholarship and was elected a Fellow of Pembroke. He proceeded M.A. in 1841, B.D. in 1849, and D.D. in 1870.

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Ordained deacon in 1841 and priest in 1844, Guillemard was classical lecturer at Pembroke but declined the tutorship due to poor health.

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While at Cambridge he was active in promoting the Oxford Movement and became an energetic member of the Cambridge Camden Society (later the Ecclesiological Society), founded in 1839 to advance church restoration and the revival of liturgical tradition.

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On 12 July 1849 he married Elizabeth Susanna Turner, daughter of William Hammond Turner of Eltham, Kent. She died in 1887, only a few months before him. They had one son, Laurence Nunns Guillemard—later High Commissioner for the Malay States—and five daughters.

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From 1848 to 1869 Guillemard served as headmaster of the Royal School, Armagh. His tenure was marked by tension, as his moderate but unmistakable high-churchmanship aroused suspicion among local Protestants. Nevertheless, he retained the confidence of Lord John Beresford, the Primate of All Ireland.

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In 1869 he was appointed vicar of Little St Mary's Church. During his seventeen-year incumbency he transformed the church into a centre of spiritual renewal and organised the first retreats and Lenten conferences held in Cambridge.

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Ill health forced his resignation shortly before his death at Waterbeach on 2 September 1887. He was buried in Cambridge Cemetery.

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His principal scholarly contribution, beyond numerous sermons and pamphlets, was Hebraisms of the Greek Testament (1879), left unfinished at his death.

His estate was valued at £18,462 (probate, 26 September 1887).

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Notes & Sources​​

• Venables, Edmund, and G. Martin Murphy, biographical notices of William Henry Guillemard.

• Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses.

• The Guardian (7 September 1887; 14 September 1887), obituary notices.

• Boase, Modern English Biography.

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