The Right Reverend Edward Henry Bickersteth |
|
---|---|
Bishop of Exeter | |
Diocese | Diocese of Exeter |
In office | 1885–1900 |
Predecessor | Frederick Temple |
Successor | Herbert Edward Ryle |
Other posts | Dean of Gloucester (1885) |
Personal details | |
Born |
Islington, England |
25 January 1825
Died | 16 May 1906 London, England |
(aged 81)
Nationality | British |
Denomination | Anglican |
Spouse | (1) Rosa Bignold (2) Ellen Susanna Bickersteth |
Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
Edward Henry Bickersteth (25 January 1825 – 16 May 1906) was a bishop in the Church of England.
Edward Henry Bickersteth was born in Islington, the son of Edward Bickersteth, Rector of Watton, Hertfordshire. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in Classics 1847, and proceeded M.A. in 1850. and was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal for poetry in 1844, 1845 and 1846.
On taking Holy Orders in 1848, he became curate of Banningham, Norfolk, and then of Christ Church, Tunbridge Wells. He was called to the Rectory of Hinton Martell in 1852 and to the Vicarage of Christ Church, Hampstead in 1855, a position in which he remained for 30 years.
In 1885 he became Dean of Gloucester and in the same year was appointed Bishop of Exeter. Bickersteth was awarded an honorary D.D. by Cambridge University in 1885.
Following in the footsteps of his father, Bickersteth undertook a number of extended overseas mission tours in support of the work of the Church Mission Society and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In 1880 he travelled to India and the Middle East. 1891 he travelled to Japan on a visit to the mission churches of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, reuniting with his eldest son Edward, then serving as the first Bishop of South Tokyo. Arriving in Yokohama on 23 September 1891, the travel journals of his daughter, Mary Jane Bickersteth, include detailed descriptions of the Anglican church's mission work in Japan as well as visits to sites such as the Shrines and Temples of Nikkō and the experience of surviving the strong Mino-Owari earthquake at Osaka on 28 October 1891.