James Geoffrey Gordon (11 December 1881 – 28 August 1938) was a priest and bishop 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, ...

Life

James Gordon was the son of J. E. H. Gordon, an early electrical engineer and

Alice Mary Gordon Alice Mary Gordon (22 October 1854 – 18 June 1929) was a British author and writer on the aesthetics of domestic electricity. During her life she was known by her husbands' names, making her ''Alice Gordon'' or ''Mrs J E H Gordon'' as well as ' ...

(née Brandreth) later Lady

Danesfort Danesfort () is a civil parish, electoral division and rural townland in County Kilkenny, Ireland. Located approximately 6 km from Kilkenny City on the N10 (Waterford to Kilkenny road), the M9 motorway also passes through Danesfort townl ...

, an author and domestic electrical pioneer. He was educated at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

. He was President of the Cambridge Union in 1902. He was Private Secretary to

Lord President of the Council The Lord President of the Council is the presiding officer of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and the fourth of the Great Officers of State, ranking below the Lord High Treasurer but above the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal. The Lor ...

1904 - 1906. He was called to the Bar in 1906 but soon embarked on a change of direction. He was ordained in 1909, and served as a curate in London. During the Great War, he was a Temporary Chaplain to the Forces (TCF), and was posted to France then Italy, ending the War as Deputy Assistant Chaplain-General. He wrote ‘Papers in Picardy’ with Reverend T W Pym DSO and contributed an essay to ‘The Church in the Furnace’ a critical view by TCFs of the Church's deficiencies in time of war. From 1919 to 1926, he was Rector of St John's in Edinburgh and from 1926 to 1932 was Vicar of St Mary, Nottingham. He was appointed suffragan bishop of Jarrow in 1932 but died in August, 1938. His special responsibility throughout Durham but particularly in Jarrow was providing support during a severe period of unemployment causing considerable hardship. Although he did not believe that hunger marches were effective, he held a service for the Jarrow March and gave it his blessing. After his death, the Bishop of Durham praised Gordon for ‘the cheery comradeship in effort, for the words of sympathy and wisdom, for the comfort of his presence, and for the spur of his example’.University of Durham Barker Research Library. The Bishoprick, November, 1938. Gordon married Martha Sabrina Brinton In 1912.

References

1881 births 1938 deaths 20th-century Church of England bishops Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Bishops of Jarrow People educated at Eton College Vicars of St Mary's Church, Nottingham {{ChurchofEngland-bishop-stub