Hardwicke Rawnsley money to buy Brandlehow Wood, the National Trust's first purchase in the Lake District. In 1898, Rawnsley was offered the bishopric of Madagascar, but declined it, feeling himself committed to his conservation work in the Lake District and, by then, in many other parts of the British countryside. In 1912 he was appointed to the largely honorary position of chaplain to the King, and he held the post of chaplain to the Border Regiment of the Territorial Force, with the rank of colonel. Rawnsley published more than forty books, mostly non-fiction, some on religious subjects, many with a Lake District
Brenda Rawnsley 1939, she enlisted in the ATS Officer Cadet training unit, but soon left to work for the Ministry of Economic Warfare in London. Through mutual friends she met Flt Lt Derek Rawnsley, who had made history by flying solo in a Tiger Moth from Australia to Oxford. In 1937 Lt Rawnsley had founded the Federal Union Movement with Charles Kimber and Patrick Ransome, seeking the unification of Europe to avoid war. Hugh-Jones and Rawnsley were married in February 1941, but he was immediately posted overseas in the RAF. By the end of 1941, Mrs Rawnsley was a Women's Auxiliary Air