Cecil Wilson (9 September 1860 – 20 January 1941) was an English county

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er and Anglican bishop. He was the third missionary Anglican

Bishop of Melanesia The Archbishop of Melanesia is the spiritual head of the Church of the Province of Melanesia, which is a province of the Anglican Communion in the South Pacific region, covering the nations of Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. From 1861 until the inaugu ...

from 1894 to 1911, and subsequently, the second Bishop of Bunbury from 1918 to 1937.

Early life and family

Wilson was born at

Canonbury Canonbury is a residential area of Islington in the London Borough of Islington, North London. It is roughly in the area between Essex Road, Upper Street and Cross Street and either side of St Paul's Road. In 1253 land in the area was granted to ...

in London,Cecil Wilson
CricketArchive. Retrieved 15 October 2022. the youngest son of Alexander Wilson. He was educated at

Tonbridge School (God Giveth the Increase) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = , president = , head_label ...

, and went up to

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

, graduating

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in divinity in 1882 and

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in 1885. On 1 February 1899, Wilson married Alice Ethel Julius, the second daughter of Bishop Julius, at

ChristChurch Cathedral ChristChurch Cathedral, also called Christ Church Cathedral and (rarely) Cathedral Church of Christ, is a deconsecrated Anglican cathedral in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. It was built between 1864 and 1904 in the centre of the city, ...

Cricket

After having played cricket at school, Wilson later played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

, playing in 28 matches for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

between 1882 and 1890. He was awarded his

county cap In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

in 1882 and also played in three first-class matches for MCC and two for

I Zingari I Zingari (from dialectalized Italian , meaning "the Gypsies"; corresponding to standard Italian ') are English and Australian amateur cricket clubs, founded in 1845 and 1888 respectively. It is the oldest and perhaps the most famous of the 'wa ...

. A right-handed batsman, he scored a total of 1,193 runs in first-class matches, including one

century A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

,Cecil Wilson

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

. Retrieved 15 October 2022. and in 1882 scored a half-century in each innings against the touring Australian team. He took five wickets and is known to have occasionally played as a

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

. Wilson's brother, Leslie Wilson, also played first-class cricket for Kent, making 105 top-level appearances for the side between 1883 and 1897.

Ecclesiastical career

Wilson was ordained by

Harold Browne Edward Harold Browne (usually called Harold Browne; 6 March 1811 – 18 December 1891) was a bishop of the Church of England. Early life and education Browne was born on 6 March 1811 at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, the second son of Robert ...

Bishop of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' (except dur ...

, as a deacon in 1886, and as a priest the following year. He was in charge of St Faith's mission, in the parish of

Portsea, Portsmouth Portsea Island is a flat and low-lying natural island in area, just off the southern coast of Hampshire in England. Portsea Island contains the majority of the city of Portsmouth. Portsea Island has the third-largest population of all th ...

, until 1891. Between 1891 and 1894, he held the

incumbency The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seeking re-ele ...

at St John's Moordown, Bournemouth. In 1894, Wilson was chosen to succeed John Selwyn as Bishop of Melanesia. He left England for New Zealand in April, and was consecrated at

St Mary's Cathedral, Auckland St Mary's Cathedral Church, also known as St Mary's Church, is the former cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Auckland. Located in Parnell, New Zealand, Parnell, it replaced the earlier Old St Mary's. This wooden Gothic Revival architectu ...

, on 11 June 1894. He launched the fifth

Southern Cross Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin for c ...

mission ship in 1903, and advocated for the movement of the centre of Anglican life in Melanesia to the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

from

Norfolk Island Norfolk Island (, ; Norfuk: ''Norf'k Ailen'') is an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head and about from Lord Howe Island. Together with ...

. Unwilling, however, to himself move to the Solomons, in 1911 he was appointed rector of St Andrew's Church, Walkerville and Archdeacon of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, South Australia, which posts he held until his Bunbury appointment in 1918. Wilson is listed in the Calendar of Saints of the

Church of the Province of Melanesia The Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACoM), also known as the Church of the Province of Melanesia and the Church of Melanesia (COM), is a church of the Anglican Communion and includes nine dioceses in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledoni ...

. Wilson died at

Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

in 1941 at the age of 80.

Publications

References

External links

Historical documents by Wilson
from

Project Canterbury Project Canterbury (sometimes abbreviated as PC) is an online archive of material related to the history of Anglicanism. It was founded by Richard Mammana, Jr. in 1999 with a grant from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, and is ho ...

Melanesian Mission Occasional Paper
announcing Wilson's selection as Bishop, 1894.
The Wake of the Southern Cross: Work and Adventures in the South Seas, by Cecil Wilson
1932.

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Cecil Anglican bishops of Melanesia Anglican bishops of Bunbury Anglican saints 1860 births 1941 deaths People educated at Tonbridge School Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge I Zingari cricketers English cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Kent cricketers 19th-century Anglican bishops in Oceania Harman family Julius family