Richard Parsons (bishop)

Richard Godfrey Parsons was an Anglican Bishop who served in three Dioceses during the first half of the twentieth century. A renowned liberal scholar,he was born into a Lancashire family on 12 November 1882 and educated at Durham School and Magdalen College, Oxford. Ordained priest in 1907 he was a curate at Hampstead before four years as Chaplain at University College, Oxford. Principal of Wells Theological College from 1911-16 he was then appointed a chaplain to the forces before two Lancashire incumbencies. Ideally suited to pastoral work he became Bishop of Middleton, a Suffragan appointment in 1927. During this period he was one of several clerics who made a major contribution to the revision of the Prayer Book. A man with much sympathy to the poor he enjoyed his time at the See of Southwark(1932-41) before translation to Hereford . A devoted family man, he lost his son at Tobruk and died himself six years later on Boxing Day 1948.