Cecil Henry Druitt (16 August 1875 – 26 July 1921) was the first Anglican Bishop of Grafton in New South Wales, Australia.

Early life

Druitt was born in 1875 in

Stockbridge, Hampshire Stockbridge is a town and civil parish in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. It had a population of 592 at the 2011 census. It sits astride the River Test and at the foot of Stockbridge Down. Description The town is situated on th ...

, the son of the Rev William Crawley Druitt and his wife Caroline ().

Clerical career

He was educated at

Clifton College Clifton College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in the city of Bristol in South West England, founded in 1862 and offering both boarding school, boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18. In its early years, unlike mo ...

and

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus") is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th c ...

. He trained for ordination at

Ridley Hall, Cambridge Ridley Hall is a theological college located on the corner of Sidgwick Avenue and Ridley Hall Road in Cambridge (United Kingdom), which trains men and women intending to take Holy Orders as deacon or priest of the Church of England, and members ...

, and was ordained deacon in 1898 and priest in 1899. He began his ordained ministry as a

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are as ...

at Christ Church, Torquay (1898-1900). In 1900 he became a

lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

at the Church Mission Society college in

Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...

. He was later Rector of St Bride's

Stretford Stretford is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, sited on flat ground between the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal; the Bridgewater Canal bisects the town. The town is located south of Manchester, south of Salfo ...

and then

Vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...

of St Mary's

Overchurch Upton is a village in the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula, England, and is situated within of Birkenhead, of the Dee Estuary, a similar distance from the River Mersey, and from Liverpool Bay. The village is a Upton (ward), ward of the M ...

. In 1911 he became

Coadjutor Bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) ("co-assister" in Latin) is a bishop in the Latin Catholic, Anglican and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in administering the diocese. The coa ...

of Grafton and Armidale and, when the

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

was divided in 1914,

Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of the Grafton portion. Druitt attended the

Lambeth Conference The Lambeth Conference convenes as the Archbishop of Canterbury summons an assembly of Anglican bishops every ten years. The first took place at Lambeth in 1867. As regional and national churches freely associate with the Anglican Communion, ...

in 1920 and remained in England for twelve months, arriving back in May 1921. He suffered from diabetes and died in post on 26 July 1921.

Personal life

He married Eleanor Law Mathews in 1904.

Legacy

A school in

Coffs Harbour Coffs Harbour, locally nicknamed Coffs, is a coastal city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. It is one of the largest urban centres on the North Coast, with a population of 78,759 a ...

, Bishop Druitt College, is named after Dr Druitt.Bishop Druitt College

References

1875 births Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Alumni of Ridley Hall, Cambridge Anglican bishops of Grafton 20th-century Anglican bishops in Australia 1921 deaths {{Australia-Anglican-bishop-stub