Mervyn Haigh

Who was Mervyn Haigh?

Mervyn George Haigh was an Anglican clergyman who served as the third bishop of the restored see of Coventry in the modern era and the 97th Bishop of Winchester in a long line stretching back to the 9th century.

He was born on 14 September 1887, the son of an Anglican clergyman and was educated at Clifton College, Bristol and New College, Oxford.

After university he took Holy Orders and embarked on a clerical career that was to last for over 40 years. London curacies were interrupted by war service as an army chaplain in East Africa, but on his return he rose rapidly in the church hierarchy. From 1919 until 1924 he was Chaplain and Lecturer at the Ordination Test School, in Knutsford, and Examining Chaplain to the Bishop of Llandaff but his big breakthrough came with his appointment to be the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Private Secretary- a post he was to hold under two separate incumbents until his elevation to the rank of Bishop in 1931. He was appointed Bishop of Coventry, and served the diocese well especially during the terrible bombing of the city during World War II . In 1942 he was translated to Bishop of Winchester, the enthronement taking place in the autumn of that year.