12 Facts About Cyril Garbett

Cyril Forster Garbett was an Anglican bishop and author.

Cyril Garbett was successively Bishop of Southwark, Bishop of Winchester and Archbishop of York.

Cyril Garbett was ordained in 1899 as a deacon and was sent to be a curate of St Mary's Church, Portsea, where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1901 and remained until 1919, after 1909 as its vicar.

Cyril Garbett was consecrated as the Bishop of Southwark by Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury, at St Paul's Cathedral on St Luke's day 1919 and remained in this position until his translation as the Bishop of Winchester in 1932 before, in 1942, becoming the Archbishop of York.

Cyril Garbett was a popular public figure, especially as a pastoral bishop, famous for trudging the length of his dioceses with his walking stick, visiting both clergy and lay people in the towns he passed through.

Cyril Garbett was a pioneer of the Ecumenical Movement and, during and after the Second World War, travelled extensively, including to Communist Bloc countries.

However, during the Cold War, Cyril Garbett denounced communism as un-Christian and actively supported the British government line.

On 17 April 1944, Cyril Garbett appeared on the cover of Time magazine after he had been persuaded by the British Ministry of Information to go to the United States to discuss religious freedom in Russia.

Cyril Garbett's visit to Dublin, where he met President de Valera, was considered significant.

Cyril Garbett sat in the House of Lords for many years as a Lord Spiritual and, as an erastian, he took his duties very seriously.

On his retirement, Cyril Garbett was offered and accepted a hereditary barony, but he died before this could be legally created.

Cyril Garbett continued to work into his late seventies, which eventually took its toll.