The Ten Bishops of Portsmouth

Today, students from Charter Academy will lead the Rt Rev Jonathan Frost into Portsmouth Cathedral for his installation as the Tenth Bishop of Portsmouth. Portsmouth Cathedral, having only been dedicated as a Cathedral in 1927, has a relatively small number of Bishops, each bringing their own unique experience and skills to the diocese.

To celebrate Bishop Jonathan’s installation, we’re looking back at the ten bishops of Portsmouth, from authors to Antarctic explorers. You can watch the installation of Bishop Jonathan live online from 3:30pm

Neville Lovett, 1927 – 1936

A prolific creator of historical pageants and author of ‘Shadow Tales of Portsmouth Cathedral’, published in the mid-1930s to raise funds for the cathedral extension. He went on to be Bishop of Salisbury.

Frank Partridge, 1936 – 1941

Bishop Partridge died at his desk after only 4 years in office. His vision was responsible for the establishment of Church House, Westminster, which contains a meeting room dedicated to Bishop Partridge to this day.

William Anderson, 1942 – 1949

Anderson, then Bishop of Croydon, replied to the offer of the Portsmouth post saying, ‘There is no diocese in the country to which I would more gladly be sent’. In 1949, he became Bishop of Salisbury and is believed to be the only bishop at the time to have served in all three of the armed forces.

Launcelot Fleming, 1949 – 1959

An academic, he spent the initial years after his ordination as chaplain to successive Antarctic expeditions for which he was awarded the Polar Medal in 1937. He subsequently went on to become the Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge before coming to Portsmouth. He went on to be Bishop of Norwich and remained a passionate advocate for our responsible stewardship of the world.

John Phillips, 1960 – 1975

The son of a clergyman, he began his clerical career in Yorkshire. He resigned as bishop in 1975 due to ill-health and moved to a small parish in Dorset.

Ronald Gordon, 1975 – 1984

He served in London, Birmingham, and Oxford before coming to Portsmouth. He went on to be Bishop of Lambeth and Bishop to the Forces, and after retirement ministered as sub-dean at Christ Church, Oxford.

Timothy Bavin, 1984 – 1995

Before coming to Portsmouth, he had been Bishop of Johannesburg from 1973 to 1985. After resigning as Bishop of Portsmouth in 1995, he was professed as a Benedictine monk of the community at Alton Abbey.

Kenneth Stevenson, 1995 – 2009

Bishop Kenneth served in Lincoln, Guildford and was a chaplain at the University of Manchester before coming to Portsmouth. He was the father of Kitty Stevenson Price, Cathedral Reader, and three other children, Elisabeth, James and Alexandra. He died aged only 61 and had two brothers-in-law who were also bishops, David Tustin and Peter Forster, who both assisted at his funeral at Portsmouth Cathedral on 26 January 2011, together with his great friend, the actress Patricia Routledge.

Christopher Foster, 2010 – 2021

Christopher was ordained in 1981, and came from the diocese of St Albans where we was the suffragan Bishop of Hereford in September 2010. The Hampshire Chronicle wrote at the time: ‘The new bishop was introduced at the top of Portsmouth’s Spinnaker Tower, from which he can see much of his new diocese – 142 Church of England parishes in south-east Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.’ Bishop Christopher retired in April 2021.

Jonathan Frost, 2022 –

Jonathan has served as the Bishop of Portsmouth since 18 January 2022, and will be formally installed on Saturday 12 March 2022. He was previously Dean of York and Bishop of Southampton, a suffragan bishop in the Church of England's Diocese of Winchester since 2010. He studied at the University of Aberdeen, graduating with a Bachelor of Divinity in 1988. From 1991 to 1993, he trained for ordination at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, an evangelical Anglican theological college. He continued his studies at University of Nottingham, completing a Master of Theology (MTh) in 1999. Jonathan is married to Christine, and has three children, Jonathan is also an avid Fulham FC fan!