Eric Arthur John Mercer (6 December 1917 – 8 November 2003) was an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

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 ...

in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

. He was the first Bishop of Birkenhead from 1965 to 1973 and, from then until his retirement, the

Bishop of Exeter The Bishop of Exeter is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter in the Province of Canterbury. The current bishop is Mike Harrison (bishop), Mike Harrison, since 2024. From the first bishop until the sixteent ...

. Mercer was educated at

Dover Grammar School for Boys Dover Grammar School for Boys (DGSB) is a selective secondary school located in Dover, United Kingdom, whose origins can be traced back to the Education Act 1902 (the 'Balfour Act'). Originally founded as the Dover County School for Boys and G ...

and

Kelham Theological College Kelham is a small village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England. It is about northwest of Newark on a bend in the A617 road near its crossing of the River Trent. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 207, f ...

. After wartime service with the

Sherwood Foresters The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence for just under 90 years, from 1881 to 1970. In 1970, the regiment was amalgamated with the Worcestershire Regiment to ...

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 ...

Coppenhall Coppenhall is a small settlement in Staffordshire, England. Coppenhall lies southwest of Stafford and NNW of Penkridge with Baron Stafford as lord of the manor. The parish of ~ is bounded on the east by the Pothooks Brook. The centre of the v ...

. In 1951 he was appointed

priest in charge A priest in charge or priest-in-charge (previously also curate-in-charge) in the Church of England is a priest in charge of a parish who is not its incumbent; they will normally work on a short-term contract and have less freedom to act within the ...

Heald Green Heald Green is a suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England, south-west of Stockport near Manchester Airport, bordered by Gatley and Cheadle to the north, Cheadle Hulme to the east, Handforth and Styal to th ...

and then became rector of

St Thomas' Church, Stockport St Thomas' Church is in St Thomas's Place, Wellington Road South, Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. It is an active Church of England church in the parish of Stockport and Brinnington, in the deanery of Stockport, the archdeaconry of Maccl ...

and, from 1959 (his final appointment before his ordination to the

episcopate A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role ...

), the

Diocese of Chester The Diocese of Chester is a Church of England diocese in the Province of York covering the pre-1974 county of Cheshire and therefore including the Wirral and parts of Stockport, Trafford and Tameside. History Ancient diocese Before the si ...

's diocesan missioner. In 1973 he was

translated Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

to be the Bishop of Exeter.''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 30 August 1973, p14, "Bishops named for Exeter and Hereford" He died in retirement, at

Chilmark, Wiltshire Chilmark is a Wiltshire village and civil parish of some 150 houses straddling the B3089 road, west of Salisbury, England. The parish includes the hamlets of Mooray and Portash, both close to the south of Chilmark village; and the dispersed ...

, aged 85.

References

Bishops of Birkenhead Bishops of Exeter 20th-century Church of England bishops 1917 births 2003 deaths People educated at Dover Grammar School for Boys {{ChurchofEngland-bishop-stub