Kenneth John WOOLLCOMBE

Background

WOOLLCOMBE, Kenneth was born on January 2, 1924 in Sutton, Surrey. Son of Reverend Edward P. Woollcombe O.B East, and Elsie O. Wood.

Education

He was educated at Haileybury, and served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in the Second World War, being commissioned in the engineering branch in 1945 and confirmed in the rank of sub-lieutenant in 1946. He studied for ordination at Westcott House in Cambridge, and spent two years as a curate at Street James, Grimsby, before returning to Street John"s College in 1955, combining the roles of Fellow, Chaplain and Lecturer.

Career

He served on several minesweepers. He read theology at Street John"s College, Oxford from 1948. They had three daughters.

He contributed to a book, The Historic Episcopate, in 1954 and published Essays on Typology with Geoffrey Lampe, his predecessor as chaplain, in 1957.

He became Bishop of Oxford in 1971, succeeding Bishop Harry Carpenter. He supported rapprochement with the Methodist Church, and became well known as a committed advocate of the ordination of women as full priests within the Church.

He was mentioned as a possible Archbishop of Canterbury. However, he found his position a strain, and suffered from poor health.

He moved to London to become an assistant bishop to the Bishop of London, Gerald Ellison.

He remarried in 1980, to Juliet Dearmer (granddaughter of Canon Percy Dearmer) who had become a deaconess in 1977. They had one daughter. He declined the positions of Provost of Coventry Cathedral and Bishop of Worcester, deciding to serve as canon precentor at Street Paul"s Cathedral instead, an office that he held until he retired in 1989.

He sat as one of the five judges of the Court of Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved which granted a retrospective faculty for Henry Moore"s controversial new altar commissioned by Chad Varah and Peter Palumbo, Baron Palumbo for Street Stephen Walbrook.

He retired again, to Pershore, in 1998. He died in Worcester.

His memorial service, attended by (among others) Alan Wilson (Bishop of Buckingham) and Michael Scholar (President of Street John"s College, Oxford), took place at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford on 28 May 2008.

Achievements

• He won an exhibition, a scholarship, and the Ellerton Prize, but only achieved a 2:1.

Membership

Court of Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved 1984-1989.

Interests

• Reading, music

Connections

Married 1st Gwendoline R. V. Hodges in 1950 (died in 1976). Married 2nd Juliet Dearmer in 1980.

Father:

Reverend Edward P. Woollcombe O.B East ,

Mother:

Elsie O. Wood

Spouse:

Juliet Dearmer

Spouse:

Gwendoline R. V. Hodges