Arthur Alston

Arthur Fawssett Alston (30 December 1872 – 20 February 1954)[1] was an Anglican bishop, the third Bishop of Middleton (a suffragan bishop in the Church of England Diocese of Manchester) from 1938 until 1943.[2]

St Simon's, Southsea

Born at Sandgate, Kent, the third son of William Evelyn Alston, an army medic[3] and E. R. Alston, from Sydney,[1] Alston was educated at Clare College, Cambridge (admitted 7 July 1891, matriculated that Michaelmas, graduated Bachelor of Arts {BA} 1894 and proceeded Cambridge Master of Arts {MA Cantab} 1898). He trained for the ministry at Ridley Hall, was ordained a deacon in 1896 and a priest in Peterborough in 1897.[3]

For eleven years following ordination, he served curacies: at St Katherine, Northampton (1896–1898); at Faringdon (1898–1905); and at St Simon's, Southsea (1905–1907). While in Farington, he married in 1900, and had three sons and two daughters[1] — one of those sons, Rex Alston, became a famous cricket commentator. He then held three Yorkshire incumbencies for thirteen years in succession: Vicar of St Matthew's, Hull (1907–1915); of St George's, Leeds (1915–1917[3]/18);[1] and of All Saints', Bradford (1918–1920).[3]

Moving to Sussex in 1920, Alston became Rector of St Leonards-on-Sea, becoming additionally Rural Dean of Hastings in 1926 and Archdeacon of Hastings in 1928; he resigned the rectory and rural-deanery in 1929, remaining archdeacon.[1] He was elected a Proctor in Convocation that year, serving until 1934;[3] he ceased to be Archdeacon of Hastings when in 1938 he moved to Lancashire to become Bishop of Middleton and a Canon Residentiary of Manchester Cathedral, in which posts he remained until his retirement in 1943.[1] He was consecrated a bishop on St Matthias' day (24 February) 1938, by William Temple, Archbishop of York, at York Minster.[4]