In office 1975–1988 Consecration 1970 Name John Bickersteth Ordination 1951 | ||
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Other posts Clerk of the Closet1979–1989Bishop of Warrington1970–1975 Born 6 September 1921 (age 103) ( 1921-09-06 ) Books Clerks of the Closet in the Royal Household: Five Hundred Years of Service to the Crown, Run O the Mill Bishop Education | ||
British Anglican prelate John Bickersteth Died at 96
John Monier Bickersteth KCVO (born Canterbury, 6 September 1921) was Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1975 to 1987, and Clerk of the Closet from 1979-1989.
Bickersteth descends from a clerical family over several generations; in total six family members have been Church of England Bishops. His father was Canon Edward Monier Bickersteth, and his mother, Inez Katharine Jelf/Bickersteth, was a friend of the actress Sybil Thorndike. His uncle was Julian Bickersteth amd his great-great-grandfather was Charles James Blomfield.
Educated at Rugby School and Christ Church, Oxford, he was ordained in 1951 and began his career with a Curacy at St Matthew Moorfield's Bristol. After a spell as Vicar of St Stephen's Church, Chatham he ascended to the Episcopate in 1970 as Suffragan Bishop of Warrington, and after five years was further promoted to Bath. From 1979 he was Clerk of the Closet for a decade.