Alexander Roper Vidler OGS (27 December 1899 – 25 July 1991), known as Alec Vidler, was an English Anglican priest, theologian, and ecclesiastical historian,[7] who served as Dean of King's College, Cambridge, for ten years from 1956 and then, following his retirement in 1966, as Mayor of Rye, Sussex.
[9] The shipowning Vidler family had a long association with Rye, with Alec's great-grandfather, John Vidler, vice-consul for France, Sweden, Norway, and the Hanse Towns, being an alderman of the town,[10] and his descendants serving as mayors, aldermen and councillors.
[11][12][13] The founder of Ascham St Vincent's School, at Eastbourne, Sussex, William Newcombe Willis, was his father's first cousin by marriage.
[22] In 1946 he published with Walter Alexander Whitehouse Natural Law: A Christian Re-Consideration based on ecumenical meetings at St Deiniol's Library including Hans Ehrenberg, Hubert Cunliffe-Jones, Richard Kelwe, Gerhard Leibholz [de], Philip Mairet, Richard O'Sullivan, and Victor White.
[24] Later he taught at the University of Cambridge, where in 1956 he succeeded Ivor Ramsay as Dean of King's College,[citation needed] later supervising the doctorate of David Nicholls.
Vidler was interested in translating theology into the language of the people, but in the process he was willing to set aside many traditional teachings.
During the 1950s Vidler began to advocate the abolition of the clerical collar in favour of a black shirt and white tie, but whilst some clergy adopted this mode of dress it did not become widespread.