Edward Twells

Who is Edward Twells?

Edward Twells was the first Bishop of Bloemfontein in South Africa from 1863 to 1869. He was born in 1823 and was the younger brother of Henry Twells. He died at the age of 70 at his house, Pembrokegate, at Clifton, Bristol on 4 May 1898.

Twells was consecrated Bishop of the Orange Free State in Westminster Abbey in 1863 under the Jerusalem Act, and went out to the colony, in the interior of South Africa, with three priests and two schoolmasters.

In November 1863 Twells founded the Diocesan Grammar School since known as St. Andrew's School, Bloemfontein. He called for the establishment of a Missionary Brotherhood, in 1865, in response to which the Revd Fr H.F. Beckett left England for the Free State, in July 1867, with seven young men who would be the founding members of the Brotherhood of St Augustine of Hippo, later of Modderpoort.

In 1867 Twells went to the Lambeth Conference and was a proponent of the cause of Robert Gray the Bishop of Cape Town in his battles with Bishop Colenso over the control of the diocese of Natal.

Twells resigned his bishopric in 1869 under a cloud following public allegations of pederasty.