Priest, historian, hagiographer 1880 - 1945
Canon Doble was born in Penzance, studied history at Exeter College, Oxford then divinity at Ely Theological College.
He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1907, appointed curate in Redruth in 1919, made the vicar of Wendron near Helston in 1925, where he stayed for 20 years, and also became a canon of Truro Cathedral in 1935.
Whilst a priest Doble channelled his historical research skills into stories about the lives of the many, many Celtic saints of Cornwall, Wales and Brittany. From 1923 he produced 48 illustrated booklets on the lives of the Cornish saints, which were later collected and republished in 6 volumes by the diocese of Truro. He acknowledged that these saints lives were not literal history, but a blend of folklore, myth and legend, but stated ‘Legend is history, in the sense that the legends and traditions of a people are part of its history.’
Barded in 1928 with the name Gwas Gwendron, he instigated the first performance of Beunans Meriasek in English, and his research around the Hal an Tow pageant led to its inclusion in Helston’s Flora Day Maytime celebrations.
https://archive.org/details/doble-saint-mewan-and-saint-austoll-2nd-ed-1939/page/n55/mode/2up
The Saints of Cornwall Volume 1: Land's End District
The Saints of Cornwall Volume 2: Lizard District
- The Saints of Cornwall Volume 3: The Saints of The Fal.
- The Saints of Cornwall Volume 4: Newquay, Padstow & Bodmin
- The Saints of Cornwall Volume 5: Mid Cornwall
- The Saints of Cornwall Volume 6: North Cornwall
