Cecil Wilson (9 September 1860 – 20 January 1941) was an English county

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er and Anglican bishop. He was the third missionary Anglican

Bishop of Melanesia The Archbishop of Melanesia is the spiritual head of the Anglican Church of Melanesia, which is a province of the Anglican Communion in the South Pacific region, covering the nations of Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. From 1861 until the inauguration ...

from 1894 to 1911, and subsequently, the second Bishop of Bunbury from 1918 to 1937.

Early life and family

Wilson was born at

Canonbury Canonbury is an area in London, forming part of the London Borough of Islington. It is located within the area between Essex Road, Upper Street and Cross Street and either side of St Paul's Road in North London. In 1253 land in the area was g ...

in London,Cecil Wilson
CricketArchive. Retrieved 15 October 2022. the youngest son of

stockbroker A stockbroker is an individual or company that buys and sells stocks and other investments for a financial market participant in return for a commission, markup, or fee. In most countries they are regulated as a broker or broker-dealer and ...

Alexander Wilson and his wife Caroline (''

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

'' Pitman).Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp. 594–595.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Stati ...

. Retrieved 21 December 2020.)Steed HE (ed) (1911) ''The Register of Tonbridge School'', p. 168. London: Rivingtons.
Available online
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

. Retrieved 14 October 2023.) The family moved from

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 ...

Beckenham Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. Prior to 1965, it was part of Kent. It is situated north of Elmers End and Eden Park, east of Penge, south of Lower Sydenham and Bellingham, and west ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

in 1873 and Wilson, like two of his older brothers, was educated at

Tonbridge School Tonbridge School is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and day school for boys aged 13–18) in Tonbridge, Kent, England, founded in 1553 by Sir Andrew Judde (sometimes spelt Judd). It is a member of the Eton Group and has clo ...

. He played cricket in the school XI between 1877 and 1879, captaining the team in his final year at school, before going up to

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Jesus College was established in 1496 on the site of the twelfth-century Benedictine nunnery of St Radegund's Priory, Cambridge, St ...

.Wilson, The Right Rev. Cecil, DD, Obituaries in 1941, ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'', 1942.
Available online
at

CricInfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a Sports journalism, sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including Liveblogging, liveblogs and sco ...

. Retrieved 14 October 2023.) He graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in divinity in 1883 and

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

in 1886. On 1 February 1899, Wilson married Alice Ethel Julius, the second daughter of

Bishop Julius Churchill Julius (15 October 1847 – 1 September 1938) was an Anglican cleric in England, then in Australia and New Zealand, becoming the first Archbishop of New Zealand. Biography Julius was born at Richmond, London, Richmond, London in 1847 ...

, at

ChristChurch Cathedral Christ Church Cathedral, also called ChristChurch Cathedral and (rarely) Cathedral Church of Christ, is a deconsecration, deconsecrated Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in the central city of Christchurch, New Zealand. It was built between 1864 ...

. The couple had two daughters.

Cricket

Despite his success as a school cricketer, Wilson did not play for

Cambridge University Cricket Club Cambridge University Cricket Club, established in 1820, is the representative cricket club for students of the University of Cambridge. The club was recognised as holding first-class cricket, first-class status until 2020. The university played ...

―his ''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'' obituary says that he was unable to accept an offered

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

in 1883 "because of an engagement to travel abroad"―although he played some cricket for university sides and captained Jesus College in 1882. He played club cricket for Beckenham and made his

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

debut for

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ken ...

in 1882 whilst still at Cambridge, playing in seven top-level matches during the season and scoring 299 runs. He scored 62

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

in his second match for the county, a

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

fixture against

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

, made scores of 57 and 50 against the touring Australians during

Canterbury Cricket Week Canterbury Cricket Week is the oldest cricket festival week in England and involves a series of consecutive Kent home matches, traditionally held in the first week in August. It was founded in 1842, although a similar festival week was first he ...

, and was awarded his

county cap In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the e ...

. Primarily a batsman, Wilson played for Kent in each of the following five seasons before returning to play his final two matches for the county in 1890. He made 28 appearances for Kent, as well as playing two first-class matches for

I Zingari I Zingari (from dialectalized Italian , meaning "the Gypsies"; corresponding to standard Italian ') are English and Australian amateur cricket clubs, founded in 1845 and 1888 respectively. It is the oldest and perhaps the most famous of the ' ...

and three for MCC. A right-handed batsman, Wilson was considered a "fine batsman" who ''Wisden'' said "drove hard and scored rapidly when set". He scored a total of 1,193 runs in first-class matches, including one

century A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. ...

,Cecil Wilson

. Retrieved 15 October 2022. a score of 127 made against

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

in 1886. He took five wickets with his right-arm spin bowling and was considered a fine fielder who "earned a reputation for fast, accurate returns to the wicket-keeper". Wilson's brother, Leslie Wilson, also played first-class cricket for Kent, making 105 top-level appearances for the side between 1883 and 1897.

Ecclesiastical career

Wilson was ordained by

Harold Browne Edward Harold Browne (6 March 1811 – 18 December 1891) was a bishop of the Church of England. Early life and education Browne was born on 6 March 1811 at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, the second son of Robert Browne of Morton House in Buck ...

Bishop of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' the offic ...

, as a deacon in 1886, and as a priest the following year. He was in charge of St Faith's mission, in the parish of

Portsea, Portsmouth Portsea Island is a flat and low-lying natural island in area, just off the southern coast of Hampshire in England. The island contains the majority of the city of Portsmouth. Portsea Island has the third-largest population of all the i ...

, until 1891. Between 1891 and 1894, he held the

incumbency The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position. In an election, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the position that is up for election, regardless of whether they are seeking re-election. There may or may not be a ...

at St John's Moordown, Bournemouth. In 1894, Wilson was chosen to succeed John Selwyn as Bishop of Melanesia. He left England for New Zealand in April, and was consecrated at

St Mary's Cathedral, Auckland St Mary's Cathedral Church, also known as St Mary's Church or St Mary's-in-Holy Trinity, is an Anglicanism, Anglican Church (building), church located in Parnell Road, Parnell, New Zealand, Parnell, a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. The buildin ...

, on 11 June 1894. He launched the fifth

Southern Cross CRUX is a lightweight x86-64 Linux distribution targeted at experienced Linux users and delivered by a tar.gz-based package system with BSD-style initscripts. It is not based on any other Linux distribution. It also utilizes a ports system to ...

mission ship in 1903, and advocated for the movement of the centre of Anglican life in Melanesia to the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

from

Norfolk Island Norfolk Island ( , ; ) is an States and territories of Australia, external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head, New South Wales, Evans Head and a ...

. Unwilling, however, to himself move to the Solomons, in 1911 he was appointed rector of St Andrew's Church, Walkerville and Archdeacon of

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

, South Australia, which posts he held until his Bunbury appointment in 1918. Wilson is listed in the Calendar of Saints of the

Church of the Province of Melanesia The Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACoM), also known as the Church of the Province of Melanesia and the Church of Melanesia (COM), is a church of the Anglican Communion and includes nine dioceses in Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. ...

. Wilson died at

Perth, Western Australia Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

in 1941 at the age of 80.

Publications

References

External links

Historical documents by Wilson
from

Project Canterbury Project Canterbury (sometimes abbreviated as PC) is an online archive of material related to the history of Anglicanism. It was founded by Richard Mammana, Jr. in 1999 with a grant from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, and is ...

Melanesian Mission Occasional Paper
announcing Wilson's selection as Bishop, 1894.
The Wake of the Southern Cross: Work and Adventures in the South Seas, by Cecil Wilson
1932.

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Cecil Anglican bishops of Melanesia Anglican bishops of Bunbury Anglican saints 1860 births 1941 deaths People educated at Tonbridge School Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge I Zingari cricketers English cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Kent cricketers 19th-century Anglican bishops in Oceania Harman family Julius family