Cecil Wilson (bishop of Bunbury)


Cecil Wilson was an English county cricketer and Anglican bishop. He was born in Canonbury; died in Perth, Western Australia. He was the third missionary Anglican Bishop of Melanesia from 1894 to 1911, and subsequently, the second Bishop of Bunbury from 1918 to 1937.
Educated at Tonbridge School, Wilson went up to Jesus College, Cambridge, graduating in Divinity in 1882. He was an English first-class cricketer who played for Kent from 1882 to 1890; he was awarded his county cap in 1882.
In one match he scored 50 in each innings against the touring Australian Eleven.
Wilson served parishes in England before his consecration. He launched the fifth Southern Cross mission ship in 1903, and advocated for the movement of the centre of Anglican life in Melanesia to the Solomon Islands from Norfolk Island.
Unwilling, however, to himself move to the Solomons, in 1911 he was appointed rector of St Andrew's Church, Walkerville and Archdeacon of Adelaide, South Australia, which posts he held until his Bunbury appointment in 1918.
Wilson is listed in the Calendar of Saints of the Church of the Province of Melanesia.

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