Born in Fringford, Oxfordshire, on 18 or 19 March 1860 into an occasionally clerical family, he was educated at Eton[1] and Exeter College, Oxford (MA, DD).

[citation needed] Made deacon in 1883 and ordained priest in 1884,[2] he was Curate at St. Michael's, Coventry (until 1888), Vicar of Milverton (1888–1896), then East Brent[3] (1896–99, succeeding his uncle George Denision) and then Rector of Weston-super-Mare.

[4] In 1911, he became Archdeacon of Taunton (by his collation on 18 May)[5] and Bishop suffragan of Taunton[6] immediately before his consecration as a bishop on St James's Day (25 July), by Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury, at St Paul's Cathedral.

[1] He died on 24 January 1942 and is commemorated in a memorial on the west wall of Wells Cathedral.

[8] De Salis married his third cousin, on 21 July 1896, Lady Mary Alice (28 June 1863 – 11 January 1930, daughter of Thomas Parker, 6th Earl of Macclesfield).