He came under attack for expressing compassion towards bereaved Argentines after the Falklands War of 1982, and generated controversy by supporting women's ordination.

[3] Runcie was born on 2 October 1921 in Birkenhead, Cheshire,[4] and spent his early life in Great Crosby, Lancashire, to middle-class and rather non-religious parents.

After the surrender of Nazi Germany, Runcie served with the occupying forces in Cologne and then with the boundary commission dealing with the future status of the Free Territory of Trieste.

Rather than the conventional minimum three-year curacy, after two years Runcie was invited to return to Westcott House as chaplain and, later, vice-principal.

[10] In 1956 he was elected fellow and dean of Trinity Hall, Cambridge,[10] where he would meet his future wife, Rosalind, the daughter of the college bursar.

[11] Like Gosforth in the 1950s, the Diocese of St Albans was a booming suburban area, popular with families moving out of a depopulating London.

Runcie attempted to give a service at St Nicholas's Parish Church in Liverpool on 11 March 1982, but was heckled by people upset about the Pope's prospective visit to Britain.

After interruptions of the service, Runcie asked the congregation to heed chapter five of St Matthew's Gospel (the Sermon on the Mount), telling them "For they are the words of Jesus himself".

Outside, demonstrators held placards with the inscriptions "Rome Rules Runcie", "Our Faith Our Bible", "Revive Reformation", "Calvary not Popery" and "Jesus What More".

[16] On 17 March 1982, Runcie gave a speech to the National Society for the Promotion of Religious Education in which he said that Christianity should play a crucial part in the religious education of all pupils, even if they were non-Christian: "While recognising that a truly pluralistic society should not merely tolerate diversity but value and nurture it, I must also express the fear that at times we seem tempted to sacrifice too much of our native Christian tradition on the altar of multi-culturalism.

Tebbit became a strong supporter of the disestablishment of the Church of England, claiming that institutions affiliated to the British state should not express what he saw as overtly partisan political views.

[citation needed] Much of the middle period of Runcie's archiepiscopate was taken up with the tribulations of two men who had been close to him: the suicide of Gareth Bennett and the kidnapping of Terry Waite.

Runcie's position on the matter had been described as "nailing his colours firmly to the fence"[citation needed] – his liberal theology conflicting with his instinctive conservatism.