| Administrative History | (Alfred) Morris Gelsthorpe (1892-1968) was educated at King's School, Canterbury and Hatfield College, Durham. He was ordained as deacon in 1919 and priest in 1920 and became curate of St Gabriel's, Bishop Wearmouth, 1919-1923. He was accepted as a CMS missionary in 1923 and served at Awka in Eastern Nigeria, becoming Principal of the CMS Awka Training College in 1928 until 1932. In 1933, he was consecrated as Assistant Bishop to the Bishop on the Niger and in 1938 was appointed as Assistant Bishop to the Bishop in Egypt and the Sudan, Bishop Gwynne. During the Second World War, he served in France and Mesopotamia in the Durham Light Infantry and the Machine Gun Corps, attaining the rank of Major and was awarded the DSO. In 1945, when Sudan was created a separate diocese, he became Bishop in the Sudan where he remained until his resignation in 1952. He returned to England where he was rector of Bingham, Nottinghamshire, 1953-1963 and Assistant Bishop of Southwell.
Source: Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1963-1964; letter to Special Collections from JM Gelsthorpe, 2005. |
| Custodial History | Presented to the CMS in July 1973; transferred on permanent loan to the Special Collections Department by the CMS in the 1980s |