Background
Telfer was born in Rochester, Kent, the son of a schoolmaster.
Telfer was born in Rochester, Kent, the son of a schoolmaster.
Having graduated from Clare College in 1908, he was ordained and became Vicar of All Saints Church, Rotherhithe, which would be destroyed by a bomb in 1944.
Telfer served as Dean of Clare College, Cambridge (1921), Ely Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University (1944–1947) and Master of Selwyn College, Cambridge (1947–1956). Telfer returned to his old Cambridge college as a Fellow 1921. Following his career at Cambridge, he continued to write on theological subjects in his retirement.