Bishop of Bedford

Bishop of Bedford
Bishopric
anglican
Incumbent: Richard Atkinson
Province	Canterbury
Diocese	St Albans
First incumbent	John Hodgkins
Formation	1537

The Bishop of Bedford is an episcopal title used by a Church of England suffragan bishop who, under the direction of the Diocesan Bishop of St Albans, oversees 150 parishes in Luton and Bedfordshire.^[1][2]

The title, which takes its name after the town of Bedford, was created under the Suffragan Bishops Act 1534. The first three suffragan bishops were appointed for the Diocese of London, but through reorganisation within the Church of England in 1914, Bedford came under the Diocese of St Albans.^[2]

Richard Atkinson, formerly Archdeacon of Leicester, was consecrated by Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, in St Paul's Cathedral on 17 May 2012.

List of the Bishops of Bedford

Bishops of Bedford
From	Until	Incumbent	Notes
1537	1560	John Hodgkins	Deprived by Queen Mary I; died in office.
1560	1879	in abeyance
1879	1888	Walsham How	Translated to Wakefield.
1888	1898	Robert Billing	Died in office.
1898	1935	in abeyance
1935	1939	Lumsden Barkway	Translated to St Andrews, Dunkeld & Dunblane.
1939	1942	Alymer Skelton	Previously Archdeacon of St Albans; translated to Lincoln.
1948	1953	Thomas Wood	Previously Archdeacon of St Albans.
1953	1957	Campbell MacInnes	Translated to Jerusalem.
1957	1962	Basil Guy	Translated to Gloucester.
1963	1968	John Trillo	Translated to Hertford then Chelmsford.
1968	1976	John Hare	Previously Archdeacon of Bedford; died in office.
1977	1981	Alec Graham	Translated to Newcastle; living.
1981	1993	David Farmbrough	Previously Archdeacon of St Albans.
1994	2002	John Richardson	Translated to honorary assistant bishop. Living
2003	2012	Richard Inwood	Previously Archdeacon of Halifax. Translated to Southwell and Nottingham
2012	present	Richard Atkinson [3]	Previously Archdeacon of Leicester.
Source(s):[2][4]

References

1. The Rt Revd Richard Inwood's biography on St Albans Diocese's website
2. Crockford's Clerical Directory (100th ed.). London: Church House Publishing. 2007. p. 945. ISBN 978-0-7151-1030-0.
3. Number 10 – Suffragan See of Bedford
4. E. B. Fryde; D. E. Greenway; S. Porter; I. Roy, eds. (2003) [1986]. Handbook of British Chronology (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 287. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.

External links

• Crockford's Clerical Directory - Listings