Angela Rosalind Runcie, Baroness Runcie (née Turner; 23 January 1932 12 January 2012) was a classical pianist and the wife of Robert Runcie,

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

Family and early life

Runcie's father was J. W. Cecil Turner, a

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

county cricketer and a recipient of the

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who served as the

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Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...

.
She was educated at the

Perse School for Girls The Stephen Perse Foundation is a family of independent schools in Cambridge and Saffron Walden for students aged 1 to 18. The Foundation is made up of 3 nurseries (2 in Cambridge and 1 in Saffron Walden, Essex) for ages 1–5, 2 Junior Schoo ...

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and the London

Guildhall School of Music The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz ...

. Carpenter, Humphrey, ''Robert Runcie: The Reluctant Archbishop''. London:

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, 1996. ] She married Robert Runcie on 5 September 1957. They had two children, James Runcie, James (born 1959) and Rebecca Runcie (born 1962).

Later life

In 1974, Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, was scheduled to retire in November. His successor was to be appointed by

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pr ...

. In April,

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had already announced the betting odds as to who the next archbishop would be. Runcie, whose husband was at the time Bishop of St Albans and considered a likely candidate, was reported by ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine to have disapproved of the entire process: "It's revolting to turn important church affairs into a horse race." The archbishop appointed was Donald Coggan,

Archbishop of York The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers th ...

, whom

had considered a leading candidate. That same year Robert Runcie was offered the position which Coggan had vacated, that of the Archbishop of York. She was reportedly set against moving from

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

, Hertfordshire to

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, North Yorkshire, resulting in her husband turning down the offer. Robert Runcie was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1979 and installed in the position in 1980. His acceptance of the position was reportedly delayed for weeks because of her alleged opposition to moving to

Lambeth Palace Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is situated in north Lambeth, London, on the south bank of the River Thames, south-east of the Palace of Westminster, which houses Parliament, on the opposite ...

. Runcie continued to give piano recitals in both the United Kingdom and the United States. According to an article in the ''

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'' in 1983, she had raised over £60,000 for charity through her recitals. She was interested in gardening and redesigned the gardens at Lambeth Palace (the London base of the Archbishop of Canterbury) in 1986. During the 1980s, the Early Diagnostic Unit for breast cancer of The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust was threatened with closure. Runcie and June Kenton, owner of the Rigby & Peller shop, which has received a

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for custom-making the brassieres of

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during h ...

, organised a petition for its continued existence, gathering thousands of signatures. Their petition was delivered to Norman Fowler,

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions The secretary of state for work and pensions, also referred to as the work and pensions secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the business of the Department for Work and P ...

, who withdrew the notice of closure. In 1987, she was featured in articles of the ''Daily Star'', a daily British

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newspaper. She took legal action against the publisher under English defamation law. The case reportedly concluded with a

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in her favour. In 1988, she was named Honorary President of the Anglo-Armenian Association.

Later years and death

Runcie lived in

(in which city she had lived in the 1970s during her husband's time as Bishop of St Albans) and taught piano privately and at St Albans School and

St Albans High School for Girls St Albans High School for Girls is a selective, private day school for girls aged 4 – 18 years, which is affiliated to the Church of England and takes girls of all faiths or none. There are approximately 328 pupils in the preparatory school w ...

. Robert Runcie died on 11 July 2000. Lady Runcie died on 12 January 2012, 11 days before her 80th birthday.

References

Sources

* Carpenter, Humphrey, ''Robert Runcie: The Reluctant Archbishop''.

, 1996. .

External links

Profile on Peerage.com
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20081222062750/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,908543,00.html ''Time'' article of 8 April 1974 mentioning a statement by Runcie {{DEFAULTSORT:Runcie, Rosalind 1932 births 2012 deaths Alumni of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama British baronesses English classical pianists English women pianists People educated at the Perse School for Girls Musicians from Cambridgeshire Spouses of life peers 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century English musicians 20th-century English women musicians 20th-century women pianists