Ernest Barnes

Who was Ernest Barnes?

Ernest William Barnes FRS was an English mathematician and scientist who later became a liberal theologian and bishop.

He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was Master of the Temple from 1915 to 1919. He was made Bishop of Birmingham in 1924, the only bishop appointed during Ramsay MacDonald's first term in office. His modernist views, in particular objection to Reservation, led to conflict with the Anglo-Catholics in his diocese.