Robert Hindes Groome

Second son of John Hindes Groome, formerly fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, Robert was Rector for 27 years of Earl Soham and Monk Soham in Suffolk. He was educated at Norwich under Richard Valpy and Howes, and at Caius College, Cambridge (BA 1832, MA 1836). In 1833 he was ordained to the Suffolk curacy of Tannington-with-Brundish; during 1835 he traveled in Germany as tutor to the son of Spanish financier Juan Álvarez Mendizábal; in 1839 he became Curate of Corfe Castle, Dorset, of which little borough he was mayor for a year. In 1845 he succeeded his father as Rector of Monk Soham. During his 44 years there, he built the rectory and the village school, restored the old church, erected an organ, and rehung the bells. In 1858 he was appointed honorary canon of Norwich, and from 1869-87 was Archdeacon of Suffolk. When failing eyesight forced him to resign that office, 186 clergy of the diocese presented him with his portrait by William R. Symonds.

Groome was a man of wide culture and many friends. Chief among these were Edward Fitzgerald; William Bodham Donne; William Hepworth Thompson, the master of Trinity; and Henry Bradshaw, the Cambridge librarian, who said of him: I never see Groome but what I learn something from him. He read much, but published little: a couple of charges, one or two sermons and lectures, some hymns and hymn-tunes, and articles in the Christian Advocate and Review, which he edited 1861-6. He is remembered for his Suffolk short stories, “The Only Darter,” “Master Charlie,” and others, a collection of which appeared shortly after his death.