Gerard Tickle

Who is Gerard Tickle?

Gerard William Tickle was an English prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the Bishop of the Forces from 1963 to 1978.

Born in Birkenhead in 1909, he was ordained to the priesthood on 28 October 1934. He served as Vice-Rector of the English College, Rome 1946-52 and Rector 1952-63. He was appointed the Bishop of the Forces and Titular Bishop of Bela by the Holy See on 12 October 1963. His consecration to the Episcopate took place on 1 December 1963, the principal consecrator was Cardinal William Theodore Heard, and the principal co-consecrators were Cardinal John Carmel Heenan and Bishop William Eric Grasar. He participated in the third and fourth sessions of the Second Vatican Council, held in 1964 and 1965.

Bishop Tickle was the target of an assassination attempt by an Irish republican bomber, Shane Paul O'Doherty, after, O'Doherty later claimed, he had read "... a newspaper story quoting Tickle as saying British soldiers did nothing wrong on Bloody Sunday. The bomb, stuffed into a hollowed-out Bible, failed to detonate."