Richard Brook (bishop)

Richard Brook (1880-1969) was an English scholar, academic and school master who was Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich from 1940 to 1953, having previously been in academia as Principal of Liverpool College.

He was a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, 1907–19,[1] and he contributed an essay in ‘Foundations’ in 1912, an influential publication expressing ‘Christian belief in terms of modern thought’.

[2] When the First World War broke out, Brook joined the YMCA, serving in France, writing to diocesan bishops in 1915 seeking volunteers from the clergy to staff ‘huts’ for soldiers in need of recreation and refreshments.

The key figure in the appointment of bishops was the Prime Minister whose ‘patronage secretary’ compiled evidence from many quarters particularly from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.

Unsurprisingly, the choice rested between two First World War TCFs, Richard Brook and Russell Barry DSO.

[8] He must have realised this deficiency because years after his retirement he would credit his secretary for easing the path to his study for nervous visitors conscious of his off-putting poster.

[9] He did have one considerable success with his post-War One Million Shilling Fund which raised over £60,000 for the diocese to be spent on buildings, clergy stipends etc.