Alfred Blomfield


Alfred Blomfield was an Anglican bishop in the last decades of the 19th century.
Alfred was the son of Charles James Blomfield, Bishop of London, and brother of architect Arthur Blomfield and children’s writer Lucy Elizabeth Bather. He was educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford before being awarded a Fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford, where he gained his Bachelor of Arts in 1855 and his Oxford Master of Arts in 1857. From 1857, he was a Curate at Kidderminster, then its Vicar, having been ordained priest in 1858.
After this, he held further incumbencies in Stepney, Islington, and Barking, before becoming Archdeacon of Essex in the Diocese of St Albans. From there he moved to become Archdeacon of Colchester in the same diocese, and at the same time the first Bishop of Colchester in over 200 years, for twelve years until 1894. He was ordained a bishop by Archibald Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury, on 24 June 1882 at St Albans Cathedral. He died in post, in Brentwood, Essex; he had become a Doctor of Divinity honoris causa by his university days prior to his consecration.