Arthur Preston

Who was Arthur Preston?

The Rt Rev Arthur Llewellyn Preston was the third Bishop of Woolwich. Born in 1883 into a distinguished family and educated at Charterhouse and University College, Oxford, he was ordained in 1905. His first post was at St Mark’s, Plumstead after which he was Vicar at St James the Great, Bethnal Green . A much respected Rural Dean of Lewisham and later Archdeacon of Lewisham he was appointed a Cathedral Canon by the Bishop of Southwark in 1930 and Suffragan Bishop two years later. In 1936 he died whilst aboard his brother’s yacht. At his memorial service he was described by his fellow Bishop Edgar Priestley Swain as

“ A man of great gifts, one of the most thoroughly human persons I have ever known”

.