Alfred Averill

Who was Alfred Averill?

Alfred Walter Averill was the 5th Anglican Bishop of Auckland whose Episcopate spanned a 25-year period during the first half of the 20th century.

Born in Staffordshire he was educated at King Edward VI School, Stafford and St John's College, Oxford before embarking on an ecclesiastical career with a curacy at St George's, Hanover Square. Emigrating to New Zealand in 1894 he was successively Vicar of St Michael’s and All Angels in Christchurch and Archdeacon of Akaroa before elevation to the See of Waiapu in 1910. Translated to Auckland four years later he was further promoted to be Archbishop of New Zealand in 1925.

In 1935, he was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal.