Vigo Auguste Demant

Who was Vigo Auguste Demant?

Vigo Auguste Demant, Anglican clergyman, theologian and social commentator, was one of the 14 committee members who served on the Wolfenden report on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution. He was born on 8 November 1893 and died on 3 March 1983 at the age of 89. He was Canon of Christ Church, Oxford and Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford from 1949 to 1971.

He served two curacies, one in Oxford and the second in London. He became vicar of St John the Divine, Richmond in 1933 and nine years later he became a Canon of St Paul’s Cathedral.

The Wolfenden report was published in Britain on 3 September 1957 and, disregarding the conventional ideas of the day, recommended that "homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence".

Demant was a regular broadcaster on the BBC's Third Programme in the 1950s. He supported Maurice Reckitt in founding the Christendom Trust to encourage and fund research into the application of Christian social thought.