Roderic Coote

Who was Roderic Coote?

The Right Reverend Roderic Norman Coote OBE was a British Anglican Bishop who held three different posts in an ecclesiastical career spanning half a century.

Coote was the son of Commander Bernard Trotter Coote and Grace Harriet Robinson, daughter of the Very Reverend John Joseph Robinson. He was the grandson of Sir Algernon Coote, 12th Baronet, Lord-Lieutenant of Queen's County. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin and ordained in 1939, he began his career with a Curacy at St Bartholomew's, Dublin. After a decade as a missionary priest in The Gambia he became Bishop of the Diocese in 1951. Translated to Fulham in 1957, his final appointment was a sideways move to Bishop of Colchester nine years later. He became an area bishop with the creation of the Chelmsford area scheme 1983. An accomplished musician, he died just six months short of his 50th Episcopal anniversary.

Coote married Erica Lynette Shrubbs, daughter of Reverend Eric Gordon Shrubbs, in 1964. They had one son and two daughters. He died in July 2000, aged 85.