The Divinity House

Durham

During the earliest years in the North, Falkner lived with the Noble family in Newcastle. In the early 1890s he took lodgings in 42, South Street, Durham. In 1899 he married Evelyn Adye and they moved into what had been the home of the headmaster of the old grammar school on Palace Green. He made some alterations, including the building of the large bay windows overlooking the river.

The Divinity House from the West

Falkner was actively involved in Durham life, particularly from the 1920s when he gradually retired from his work at Armstrong’s. In 1921 he became Honorary Librarian to the Dean and Chapter of Durham Cathedral and he helped his predecessor publish a general history of the Library. He was a regular worshipper at daily services in the Cathedral and spent many happy hours on Sunday afternoons in the organ loft compiling his Ad Majorem Psalter. He also became almost a co-opted member of the University society.

The House from the south [cathedral] side

Many friends came to view and discuss the finer points of the superb – mainly ecclesiological – library he built up at his home. It was to be the subject of a two-day sale at Sotheby’s after his death. Suffering from ill health off and on throughout his life, he eventually succumbed in July 1932, returning to The Divinity House a month earlier from convalescing in the South. On 27 July a memorial service was held in Durham Cathedral to coincide with the interment of Falkner’s ashes in Burford, Oxfordshire.

The memorial stone in Durham Cathedral Cloisters