Francis Cocks

Who was Francis Cocks?

The Rt Rev. Francis William Cocks CB was the Anglican Bishop of Shrewsbury from 1970 to 1980.

He was born into an ecclesiastical family. His father was the Rev Canon W.Cocks sometime Vicar of Felixstowe Born on 5 November 1913, he was educated at Haileybury and St Catharine's College, Cambridge. He was an active rugby player for the university, Hampshire county and the Eastern Counties.

Ordained at the beginning of the Second World War, he was a Chaplain in the RAFVR until 1945, and then the Service itself, eventually rising to the rank of Chaplain in chief from 1959 to 1965, and for the same latter period he was Canon Emeritus at Lincoln Cathedral. He was awarded the Companion of the Bath in 1959.

From 1965 until 1970 he was Rector of Wolverhampton when he ascended to the Episcopate, a post he held for a decade. He retired to live at Felixstowe where he died on 20 August 1998, aged 84.