20 Facts About Alfred Blunt

Alfred Walter Frank Blunt was an English Anglican bishop.

Alfred Blunt was the second Bishop of Bradford from 1931 to 1955 and is best known for a speech that exacerbated the abdication crisis of King Edward VIII.

Alfred Blunt was younger son in second marriage of Captain Francis Theophilus Blunt of the British Colonial Service, ultimately Chief Civil Commissioner for the Seychelles.

Alfred Blunt was privately educated by his widowed mother, and attended Church Hill preparatory school at Crondall near Farnham, Hampshire, before entering Marlborough College in 1893.

Alfred Blunt entered Exeter College, Oxford, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1901, receiving first-class honours in literae humaniores, and was promoted to Master of Arts in 1904.

Alfred Blunt was later granted by the same university the degrees of Bachelor of Divinity in 1918 and, honoris causa, Doctor of Divinity in 1932.

Alfred Blunt was elected as a tutorial Fellow of Exeter College in March 1902, and as Assistant Master of Wellington College later in 1902 before studying for priesthood at Cuddesdon Theological College.

Alfred Blunt was ordained deacon in 1904 and priest in 1905 by Francis Paget, Bishop of Oxford, in whose diocese he served as a licensed preacher until 1907, when he became curate at Carrington, Nottingham, an industrial parish.

Alfred Blunt became its perpetual curate, or vicar, in 1909.

Alfred Blunt became examining chaplain to Edwyn Hoskyns, Bishop of Southwell, its diocesan, from 1911 until 1927.

Alfred Blunt became honorary canon at Southwell Minster in 1918.

In 1930, Alfred Blunt was offered but declined the See of Worcester before becoming Bishop of Bradford the following year.

Alfred Blunt was consecrated as a bishop on 25 July 1931 and enthroned on 30 November 1931.

Alfred Blunt hosted the Anglo-Catholic Conference, over which he presided, at Bradford in 1934.

Alfred Blunt became the president of the newly formed Council of Clergy and Ministers for Common Ownership in 1942.

Alfred Blunt's work continued, despite mental breakdowns as early as 1931, until he was forced to retire after a stroke in 1955.

Alfred Blunt's speech was made to his diocesan conference on 1 December 1936.

The speech was mundane until Alfred Blunt talked about the coronation service:.

Alfred Blunt took his notes back to the office and, on conferring with his colleague Charles Leach, agreed that the national media might be interested and sent the story over the wire to the Press Association.

Alfred Blunt married, in 1909, Margaret Catharine, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel J Duke of the Indian Medical Service, and by her had two sons and two daughters.