Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Guillemard, William Henry
GUILLEMARD, WILLIAM HENRY, D.D. (1815–1887), divine, son of Daniel Guillemard, a Spitalfields silk merchant, and Susan, daughter of Henry Venn of Payhembury, Devonshire, was born at Hackney, 23 Nov. 1815. His family was of Huguenot extraction. He was educated at Christ's Hospital, whence he passed on a school exhibition to Pembroke College, Cambridge. In 1838 he graduated B.A., obtaining high places in both triposes. The same year he gained the Crosse divinity scholarship, and in 1839 the senior Tyrwhitt Hebrew scholarship, and became fellow of his college, proceeding M.A. in 1841, B.D. in 1849, and D.D. in 1870. He was classical lecturer of his college, but declined the tutorship there. He was ordained deacon in 1841, and priest in 1844. At Cambridge he was a successful private tutor, having among his pupils Sir Henry Maine and other men of eminence. He also took a leading part in introducing 'the Oxford movement' into his own university, and rousing it from the somewhat feeble evangelicalism into which it had sunk after Simeon's death. He was an energetic member of the Cambridge Camden Society, established in 1839 for the revival of church architecture and ritual. Owing to ill-health Guillemard spent several winters in Madeira and southern Europe.
From 1848 to 1869 Guillemard was headmaster of the Royal College at Armagh. His career in Armagh was not altogether a success; his pronounced though moderate high churchmanship roused the suspicion of the ardent protestants of the district. He secured, however, the confidence of Lord John Beresford, the primate, and the friendship of Dr. Reichel and Dr. Reeves, the present bishops of Meath and of Down.
In 1869 he left Armagh on being appointed vicar of St. Mary's the Less, Cambridge. During the seventeen years of his incumbency he exercised a wholesome influence as an anglican of the old stamp. He was chairman of the Cambridge branch of the English Church Union, and made his church the centre of advanced church teaching. Enfeebled health led him to resign his living a few months before his death, which took place at Waterbeach 2 April 1887. He was buried in the Cambridge cemetery. Guillemard married in 1849 Elizabeth Susanna Turner, who predeceased him by a few months. By her he had one son and five daughters. Guillemard's only contribution to literature, besides occasional pamphlets and sermons, was an unfinished work on the 'Hebraisms of the Greek Testament,' Cambridge, 1879. The soundness of its scholarship and its critical insight deepens our regret at its fragmentary character.
[Personal knowledge and private information.]