John Russell Darbyshire (12 October 1880 – 30 June 1948) was an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

bishop.

Life and ministry

He was born in

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...

in Cheshire in 1880, the son of Edward and Matilda Darbyshire, and educated at Dulwich College and

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...

. Ordained deacon in 1904 and priest in 1905, his first post was as a

Curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

at St Andrew the Less,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

after which he was Vice-Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge. Later he was

Vicar A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pref ...

of St Luke, Liverpool then a

Canon Residentiary A canon (from the Latin , itself derived from the Greek , , "relating to a rule", "regular") is a member of certain bodies in subject to an ecclesiastical rule. Originally, a canon was a cleric living with others in a clergy house or, later, i ...

Manchester Cathedral Manchester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Mary, St Denys and St George, in Manchester, England, is the mother church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother ...

. From 1922 to 1931 he was

Archdeacon of Sheffield The Archdeacon of Sheffield and Rotherham is a senior ecclesiastical officer within the Diocese of Sheffield, responsible for the disciplinary supervision of the clergy within the six area deaneries. History On 18 April 1884 the Archdeaconry of Sh ...

, his last post before his ordaination to the

episcopate A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway The Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Scottish Episcopal Church Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway. Brief history When the dioceses of Glasgow and Galloway were combined in 1837, Michael ...

- a post he held until 1938. In that year he was appointed Archbishop of Cape Town. He was created a sub-prelate of the

Order of St John of Jerusalem The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...

in 1938. He visited England to attend the Lambeth Conference in 1948, and died in London on 30 June 1948. He never married. A set of iron gates were erected in his memory at St. George's Cathedral, Cape Town.Cathedral web site
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Bibliography

* The Christian Faith and some Alternatives (1921) * Our Treasury of Prayer and Praise (1926) * Jesus, the Messiah in the Gospels (1933)

Notes

1880 births 1948 deaths Clergy from Birkenhead People educated at Dulwich College Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Staff of Ridley Hall, Cambridge Archdeacons of Sheffield Bishops of Glasgow and Galloway Anglican archbishops of Cape Town 20th-century Anglican archbishops Sub-Prelates of the Venerable Order of Saint John 20th-century Scottish Episcopalian bishops {{Anglican-bishop-stub