Father Eugene Popoff
(1813-1875)
20 May 1861
Volume 3, page 271, sitting number 3767.
[The sitter is identified as ‘Eugène Pepove (Reverend)’ in the Silvy daybooks.]
In March 1842, at the age of thirty, Father Eugene (Evgeny) Popoff was appointed the pastor of the Imperial Russian Embassy in London. He had previously ministered to the Imperial Russian Embassy in Copenhagen.
‘Born into a clerical family, he graduated from St Petersburg Theological Academy with a master’s degree. […] Father Eugene arrived in England with his wife, Anna Iakovlevna, and his three-year old son Basil, who was born in Copenhagen. While in England, the couple had three more children: Nadezhda, born in 1843; Eugene, born in 1849 (who died before reaching his tenth birthday); and James (Yakov), born in 1854’ (Christopher Birchall, Embassy, Emigrants, and Englishmen: The Three Hundred Year History of a Russian Orthodox Church in London, 2014). [Birchall omits a younger daughter, Anna, born in London circa 1846. She married Demetrius Pestchouroff, of St Petersburg, in the embassy chapel in 1868.]
Following the Crimean War, Father Popoff ministered to the many Russian Orthodox prisoners of war held in England, initially in prison hulks at Skegness and then in Plymouth (the Russians) and Lewes (the Finns), with some remaining under closer guard on a hulk in Skegness. He travelled almost every week to these three towns to carry out church ministrations and bring financial assistance.
‘The church archives contain voluminous records made by Father Eugene about his visits to the prisoners. He took great care to record the name and rank of every prisoner, together with the regiment to which he belonged; he maintained separate lists for those confessing and receiving Holy Communion. […] For example, his list of prisoners of war in the lower ranks in Plymouth runs thirty-six pages with about twenty-five names per page — 900 names in all. […] It must have taken considerable stamina to attend to so many confessions under the strained wartime circumstances, which involved travelling considerable distances and arranging for church services to be held in the prison barracks’ (Birchall, op. cit.).
The Popoff family appear on the 1861 census, recorded under the surname Popove, living at 32 Welbeck Street in Marylebone. The embassy church in Byzantine Revival style, rebuilt in 1864, was squeezed into a small space behind the building. It is still there; today it serves as a lecture hall. The building has Grade II listed status.
From time to time Father Popoff was sent over to the Hague to conduct services in the private chapel of Anna Pavlovna, Queen of the Netherlands, a Russian princess married to the Dutch king. He also ‘made other journeys outside the United Kingdom that included a visit to Lisbon in 1856 to baptize the daughter of an embassy official. While there he also conducted a funeral service’ (Birchall, op. cit.). He was also chaplain to the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, only daughter of Alexander II of Russia, after her marriage in 1874 to Queen Victoria’s second son, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. Princess Marie, as she became, ‘remained faithful to Orthodoxy and had a private chapel set up in one of the rooms in Clarence House’ (Birchall, op. cit.).
‘The Duchess of Edinburgh attended Divine service on Sunday at the Russian chapel in Welbeck-street. The Rev. Eugene Popoff officiated. On Wednesday her Royal Highness went to the Adelphi Theatre’ (Illustrated London News, 10 October 1874).
In 1867 Father Popoff’s wife Anna died ‘from a malignant disease of the uterus and liver’ (Father Popoff’s church register) and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. The following year his son Basil was ordained to the diaconate and in December 1874 he took over from his father as chaplain to Princess Marie.
Father Popoff died on 27 October 1875 while on a visit to St Petersburg. ‘The death is announced as having occurred on the 27th last, at St Petersburg, of the arch-priest Eugene Popoff, for 34 years chaplain of the Russian Embassy in London’ (Bristol Times and Mirror, 1 November 1875.’
His son took over his duties in London but died only a couple of years later. ‘The Rev. Basil Popoff, chaplain of the Russian Chapel, Welbeck street, London, and private chaplain to the Duchess of Edinburgh, died on Monday morning, after several month’s illness. He had been unable to perform his clerical duties for some time, owing to a mental malady from which he suffered. The Rev. Mr. Popoff had been long resident in England, and acted as Deacon to his father, the Rev. Eugene Popoff, for many years chaplain to the Russian Embassy, under the Embassies presided over by Prince Lleven, Count Pozzo di Borgo, and Baron Brunnow, and who died the year before last, while paying a temporary visit to St Petersburg’ (Tavistock Gazette, 23 March 1877).