Nigel Edmund Cornwall CBE, (13 August 1903 – 19 December 1984) was an English clergyman in the Church of England. He held the post of Bishop of Borneo from 1949 until 1962.

Early life

Cornwall was the son of Alan Cornwall, who was Archdeacon of Cheltenham from 1924 to 1932. He was educated at

Marlborough College Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. Founded in 1843 for the sons of Church ...

, where his older brother

Alan Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname * Alan (given name), an English given name **List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' *A ...

, a county cricketer for Gloucestershire, was later a housemaster. He then studied history at Oriel College, Oxford, gaining a third-class degree in 1926. After ordination, Cornwall worked in England for four years, first at Cuddesdon Theological College in 1926–1927, then as deacon in the Diocese of Durham and also in 1927 as

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''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 w ...

of St Columba's, Southwick, Sunderland in 1927–1930, and in 1928 as a parish priest in Durham.

Postings abroad

Cornwall's first posting abroad came in 1931 when he was appointed

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

to the Bishop of Colombo,

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

(now Sri Lanka), a position he held until 1938. He briefly returned to England for a year, as curate of

St Wilfrid's Church, Brighton St Wilfrid's Church is a former Anglican church in the Elm Grove area of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Designed and built in the 1930s to replace a temporary building in the densely populated Elm Grove area, its unu ...

in 1938–1939. Thereafter came postings as a missionary priest of the Diocese of Masasi, Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in 1939–1949, during which time he also served as headmaster of St Joseph's College, Chidya in 1944–1949. Cornwall was ordained and consecrated a bishop on All Saints' Day (1 November) 1949 at Westminster Abbey by Geoffrey Fisher,

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

, as the first to hold his post ( Bishop of Borneo): after the devastation of the Second World War, the Diocese of Labuan and the Bishopric of Sarawak were merged as the Diocese of Borneo. Cornwall served as bishop based in

Kuching Kuching (), officially the City of Kuching, is the capital and the most populous city in the States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Sarawak in Malaysia. It is also the capital of Kuching Division. The city is on the Sarawak River ...

for 13 years until 1962, when the diocese was again divided into the Diocese of

Jesselton , image_skyline = , image_caption = From top, left to right, bottom:Kota Kinabalu skyline, Wawasan intersection, Tun Mustapha Tower, Kota Kinabalu Coastal Highway, the Kota Kinabalu City Mosque, the Wism ...

(later Sabah) which included Labuan, and the Diocese of Kuching, which included Brunei.Index to ''The Chronicle – A Quarterly Report of the Borneo Mission Association'', showing many contributions by Cornwall

Return

Cornwall then returned to England, where he served as commissary to the

Bishop of Kuching The Bishop of Kuching is the ordinary of the Anglican Diocese of Kuching in the Church of the Province of South East Asia. The bishop exercises episcopal authority over Anglican churches in the Malaysian state of Sarawak and in the independent n ...

, as assistant bishop in the Diocese of Winchester, and as a canon residentiary of Winchester Cathedral from 1963 to 1973, when he retired. Cornwall was appointed a CBE in 1955. He married Mary Dalton, daughter of the Reverend C. R. Dalton, in 1959. They had no children. Mary died in 1981.

Bibliography

*Nigel E. Cornwall, ''Borneo, past present and future'', Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG), 1953, 61 pp. *Nigel E. Cornwall, "Opportunity in Borneo", ''East and West Review'' 19 (3), 1953, pp. 74–80

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cornwall, Nigel 1903 births 1984 deaths People educated at Marlborough College Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Anglican chaplains British chaplains Anglican missionaries in Tanzania English Anglican missionaries Anglican missionaries in Sri Lanka People from Kuching Anglican missionaries in Malaysia Anglican bishops of Borneo