Basil Wynne Willson
St John Basil Wynne Willson was an Anglican bishop in the first half of the 20th century. He was the Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1921 to 1937.
The maternal grandson of Michael Solomon Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem, Willson was educated at Cheltenham and St John's College, Cambridge. He was an Assistant Master at The Leys School and Rugby before Headships at Haileybury College and Marlborough. Ordained in 1904, he was appointed Dean of Bristol in 1916, a post he held for five years. The Bishop of Bristol and the Dean were strong supporters of Britain's involvement in the Great War and Willson, although 48, volunteered for the Army Chaplaincy. He was interviewed on 7 February 1917, and he asked to be posted to France or Salonika but bouts of colon pain and shortsightedness meant that he had to serve in England.. He left the army in 1918. He married Alice Lillian Wills in 1919, was Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1921 to 1937 and died in 1946
