Samuel Hole
Quick Facts
Biography
Samuel Reynolds Hole (5 December 1819 27 August 1904) was an English Anglican priest, author and horticulturalist in the late 19th century and the early part of the 20th.
Hole was born in Newark and educated at Brasenose College, Oxford. He was ordained in 1844 and spent 43 years at his father’s parish of St. Andrew's Church, Caunton, firstly as curate and from 1850 as its vicar. A prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral and an honorary chaplain to Edward Benson, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, he became Dean of Rochester in 1887. Noted for his expertise with roses and an inaugural recipient of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Victoria Medal of Honour.
There is a memorial to Hole at Rochester Cathedral. Dean Hole is further remembered on the number 3 bell at Rochester: "In remembrance of S. Reynolds Hole, Dean. Died 27th August - 1904".