The Dean of St Albans is the head of the Chapter of

St Albans Cathedral St Albans Cathedral, officially the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban but often referred to locally as "the Abbey", is a Church of England cathedral in St Albans, England. Much of its architecture dates from Norman times. It ceased to be ...

in the city of

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

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

in the

Diocese of St Albans The Diocese of St Albans forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England and is part of the wider Church of England, in turn part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The diocese is home to more than 1.6 million people and comprises the hi ...

. As the Dean of St Albans is also the Rector of St Albans, with parochial responsibilities for the largest parish in the Church of England, it is regarded as one of the most senior Deaneries in the United Kingdom. The Chapter and Dean of St Albans was founded and constituted by

Letters patent Letters patent ( la, litterae patentes) ( always in the plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, tit ...

in February 1900. The first incumbent was

Walter Lawrance Walter John Lawrance (1840 – 1914) was a priest in the Church of England at the end of the 19th century and the very first part of the 20th. Lawrance was born in 1840 and educated at St Paul’s and Trinity College, Cambridge, before he beca ...

and the incumbent is Jo Kelly-Moore.

List of deans

*1900–1914

*1914–1924

George Blenkin George Wilfrid Blenkin was Dean of St Albans from 1914 until his death in 1924. Born into an ecclesiastical family on 16 February 1861 and educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, he was ordained in 1886.''The Clergy List, Cleri ...

*1925–1935 Edward Henderson *1936–1955

Cuthbert Thicknesse Cuthbert Carroll Thicknesse (19 November 1887 – 2 June 1971) was Dean of St Albans from 1936 until his retirement in 1955. Born into an ecclesiastical family of Lancashire landed gentry, the son of Ven. Francis Norman Thicknesse, and educ ...

*1955–1963

Kenneth Mathews Arthur Kenneth Mathews was Dean of St Albans from 1955 until 1963.He was born into an ecclesiastical family on 11 May 1906 and educated at Monkton Combe School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he met his future brother-in-law Henry Brooke, Ba ...

*1964–1973

Noel Kennaby Noel Martin Kennaby was Dean of St Albans from 1964 until 1973. He was born on 22 December 1905, educated at Queens' College, Cambridge and ordained in 1930. His first post was as a curate at Epsom after which he was priest in charge of Christ ...

*1973–1993 Peter Moore *1994–2003 Christopher Lewis *2004–2021

Jeffrey John Jeffrey Philip Hywel John (born 10 February 1953) is a Church of England priest, who served as the Dean of St Albans from 2004 until 2021. He made headlines in 2003 when he was the first person to have openly been in a same-sex relationshi ...

*2021–present

Jo Kelly-Moore Joanne Kelly-Moore (born 1968) is a New Zealand Anglican priest who has been the Dean of St Albans since 2021. She was previously the Dean of Auckland in the Anglican Church of New Zealand from 2010 to 2017, and then Archdeacon of Canterb ...

References

St Albans Diocese of St Albans {{Anglican-stub