John Grindrod

Who was John Grindrod?

Sir John Basil Rowland Grindrod KBE was an Anglican bishop and the Primate of Australia from 1982 to 1989.

Grindrod was born in Aughton, Lancashire, England. He was educated at Repton School; Queen's College, Oxford; and Lincoln Theological College. He was ordained a deacon in 1951 and a priest in 1952. He served as a curate at St Michael’s Hulme, Manchester and then in Bundaberg, Queensland. He held incumbencies at All Souls' Ancoats, Manchester; Emerald, Queensland and North Rockhampton, Queensland while Archdeacon of Rockhampton.; and Christ Church, South Yarra, Victoria

Grindrod was the Bishop of Riverina from 1966 to 1971 and then Bishop of Rockhampton until 1980. He was then the Archbishop of Brisbane until 1989, additionally serving as Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia from 1982. He took Australian citizenship in 1982 and was awarded a knighthood in the 1983 New Year's Day Honours for services to religion.

Most of Grindrod's retirement years were spent in Murwillumbah in northern New South Wales then, from 2006, in Helensvale on the Gold Coast. He died, aged 89, on 4 January 2009, after a long illness.