Editing Randall Davidson (section)

{{Short description|Archbishop of Canterbury from 1903 to 1928}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| honorific-prefix = {{pre-nominal styles|size=100%|MRevd|&RHon}}
| name = Randall Davidson 
| honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCVO|PC}}
| archbishop_of = [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] 
| image = His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury No 1 (HS85-10-15284) (cropped).jpg
| imagesize =
| alt =
| caption = Formal portrait, 1904
| church = [[Church of England]]
| province = [[Province of Canterbury|Canterbury]]
| diocese = [[Diocese of Canterbury|Canterbury]]
| see =
| enthroned = 12 February 1903
| ended = 12 November 1928
| predecessor = [[Frederick Temple]]
| successor = [[Cosmo Lang]]
| other_post = 
| previous_post = {{plainlist|
* [[Bishop of Winchester]] (1895–1903)
* [[Clerk of the Closet]] to the Sovereign (1891–1903)
* [[Bishop of Rochester]] (1891–1895)
* [[Dean of Windsor]] and domestic chaplain to [[Queen Victoria]] (1883–1891)
}}
<!---------- Orders ---------->
| ordination       = {{plainlist|
* 1874 (deacon)
* 1875 (priest)
}}
| ordained_by      =
| consecration     = 25 April 1891 
| consecrated_by   = [[Edward White Benson]]
<!-- Personal -->
| birth_name = 
| birth_date = {{birth date|1848|04|07|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Edinburgh
| death_date = {{death date and age|1930|05|25|1848|04|07|df=yes}}
| death_place = London
| buried =
| nationality =
| religion = [[Anglican]]
| residence =
| parents =
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Edith Murdoch Tait]]|12 November 1878}}
| occupation =
| profession =
| alma_mater =
| signature = Randall Davidson Signature.svg
| feast_day =
| venerated =
| saint_title =
| beatified_date =
| beatified_place =
| beatified_by =
| canonized_date =
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| attributes =
| patronage =
| shrine =
| suppressed_date =
| module = {{Infobox officeholder | embed = yes
  |office         = [[Member of the House of Lords]]<br/>[[Lord Spiritual]]
  |term_start     = 1895
  |term_end       = 12 November 1928
  |office2         = [[Member of the House of Lords]]<br/>[[Lords Spiritual|Lord Temporal]]
  | term_label2      = [[Hereditary peer]]
  |term_start2     = 14 November 1928
  |term_end2       = 25 May 1930 
}}
}}
{{Portal|Christianity}}
'''Randall Thomas Davidson, 1st Baron Davidson of Lambeth''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|GCVO|PC}} (7 April 1848 – 25 May 1930) was an [[Anglican]] bishop who was [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] from 1903 to 1928. He was the longest-serving holder of the office since the [[English Reformation|Reformation]], and the first to retire from it.

Born in Edinburgh to a Scottish [[Presbyterian]] family, Davidson was educated at [[Harrow School]], where he became an Anglican, and at [[Trinity College, Oxford]], where he was largely untouched by the arguments and debates between adherents of the [[high-church]] and [[low-church]] factions of the [[Church of England]]. He was [[ordained]] in 1874, and, after a brief spell as a [[curate]], he became [[chaplain]] and secretary to the Archbishop of Canterbury, [[Archibald Campbell Tait]], in which post he became a confidant of [[Queen Victoria]]. He rose through the church hierarchy, becoming [[Dean of Windsor]] and [[domestic chaplain]] to Queen Victoria (1883), [[Bishop of Rochester]] (1891) and [[Bishop of Winchester]] (1895). In 1903 he succeeded [[Frederick Temple]] as Archbishop of Canterbury, and remained in office until his retirement in November 1928.

Davidson was conciliatory by nature, and spent much time throughout his term of office striving to keep the church together in the face of deep and sometimes acrimonious divisions between [[Evangelical Anglicanism|evangelicals]] and [[Anglo-Catholics]]. Under his leadership the church gained some independence from state control, but his efforts to modernise the ''[[Book of Common Prayer]]'' were frustrated by Parliament.

Though cautious about bringing the church into domestic party politics, Davidson did not shy away from larger political issues: he played a key role in the passage of the reforming [[Parliament Act 1911]]; urged moderation on both sides in the [[Irish War of Independence|conflict over Irish independence]]; campaigned against perceived immoral methods of warfare in the [[First World War]] and led efforts to resolve the national crisis of the [[1926 General Strike]]. He was a consistent advocate of Christian unity, and worked, often closely, with other religious leaders throughout his primacy. On his retirement he was made a [[Peerage#United Kingdom|peer]]; he died at his home in London at the age of 82, eighteen months later.