Basil Wynne Willson

St John Basil Wynne Willson (28 August 1868 – 15 October 1946) was an Anglican bishop in the first half of the 20th century. He was the Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1921 to 1937.[1][2]

Memorial in Wells Cathedral

The maternal grandson of Michael Solomon Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem,[3] Willson was educated at Cheltenham and St John's College, Cambridge.[4] He was an Assistant Master at The Leys School and Rugby before Headships at Haileybury College and Marlborough.[5] Ordained in 1904, he was appointed Dean of Bristol in 1916,[6] a post he held for five years.[7] The Bishop of Bristol and the Dean were strong supporters of Britain's involvement in the Great War and Willson, although 48, volunteered for the Army Chaplaincy. He was interviewed on 7 February 1917, and he asked to be posted to France or Salonika [8]but bouts of colon pain and shortsightedness meant that he had to serve in England.[9] He left the army in 1918. He married Alice Lillian Wills in 1919, was Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1921 to 1937 and died in 1946[10]

References

  1. Who was Who 1897-1990 London, A & C Black, 1991 ISBN 0-7136-3457-X
  2. List of Bishops
  3. "Bishop Basil Wynne-Willson". geni_family_tree. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  4. "Willson, St John Basil Wynne (WL887SJ)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  5. "Genealogy web-site". Archived from the original on 2008-10-29. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
  6. National Archives
  7. Crockford's Clerical Directory 1940-41 Oxford, OUP 1941
  8. Index Card Museum of Army Chaplaincy
  9. TNA WO374/77407
  10. Crockfords 1946
Church of England titles
Preceded by
Francis Pigou
Dean of Bristol
1916 1921
Succeeded by
Edward Arthur Burroughs
Preceded by
George Wyndham Kennion
Bishop of Bath and Wells
1921 1937
Succeeded by
Francis Underhill


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