John Feetham (bishop)


Saint John Oliver Feetham was a long-serving Anglican bishop in Australia who was aligned with the Anglo-Catholic tradition. He is recognised as a saint in the Anglican Church of Australia.

Early life

Feetham was born into an ecclesiastical family, his father was the Reverend William Feetham, Rural Dean of Raglan, Monmouthshire and his mother the daughter of an archdeacon. He was educated at Marlborough College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

Religious life

Feetham was ordained in 1899. After a curacy at St Simon Zelotes, Bethnal Green, he was Principal of the Brotherhood of the Good Shepherd. In 1913 he was ordained to the episcopate as the fourth Bishop of North Queensland.
Feetham established a number of Anglican schools in North Queensland; All Souls and St Gabriel's in Charters Towers, St Anne's in Townsville and St Mary's in Herberton.

Later life, death and relics

Feetham died on 14 September 1947 and his ashes, being holy relics, are interred beneath the high altar at St James' Cathedral, Townsville.
Feetham is commemorated in the Australian Anglican calendar. His feast day, known throughout the Diocese of North Queensland as 'Feetham-mass' is celebrated on 15 September.
The Anglican Church in Cardwell, Queensland, is under Feetham's patronage, and was consecrated as 'John Oliver Feetham Church'.