William Austin (bishop)


Lord William Piercy Austin was the inaugural and long serving Bishop of Guyana from 1842 until his death. Educated at Exeter College, Oxford and ordained in 1831 he was in rapid succession Curate, Vicar and Rural Dean of Georgetown, Guyana, then Archdeacon and Bishop. He was consecrated a bishop at Westminster Abbey on 24 August 1842, to serve as first Bishop of British Guiana. In the words of the youthful Queen Victoria, he was "the youngest and handsomest of my Bishops."
In 1884, he was appointed Primate of the West Indies and in 1891, Prelate of the Order of St Michael and St George.