Lord Rupert Ernest William Gascoyne-Cecil (9 March 1863 – 23 June 1936) was Bishop of Exeter from 1916 to 1936. He was the second son of the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury. Educated at Eton and Oxford, he was rector of Hatfield for 28 years before being appointed a bishop. Married in 1887, he had three daughters and four sons, three of whom were killed in the First World War. As bishop he was generally liked, but had a reputation for eccentricity.
Biography
Cecil was born at Hatfield House, the second son of Lord Robert Cecil, third (but second surviving) son of the 2nd Marquess of Salisbury, and Lady Robert Cecil, née Georgina Alderson. In 1865, his father's elder brother died without an heir, his father thereby became Viscount Cranborne as heir apparent to the 2nd Marquess, and Cecil became The Hon. William Cecil. In 1868, his father succeeded as 3rd Marquess, and Cecil became Lord William Cecil. His elder brother was James, Viscount Cranborne (later 4th Marquess), and his younger brothers included another Lord Robert Cecil (later 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood) and Lord Hugh Cecil (later 1st Baron Quickswood). He was educated at Eton, where he was bullied and nicknamed "Fish", a name that stuck with him among family and friends throughout his life. Following Eton he was educated at University College, Oxford where he gained a third in law. After leaving university, Cecil worked for a few months in London's East End slums.
He was ordained in 1887, and married Lady Florence ("Fluffy") Mary Bootle-Wilbraham, daughter of Edward Bootle-Wilbraham, 1st Earl of Lathom on 16 August of the same year. They had four sons and three daughters. Their eldest son Randle William was born 28 November 1889 and was killed in action during the First World War on 1 December 1917. Their third and fourth sons were also killed in that war: John Arthur (28 March 1893 – 27 August 1918) and Rupert Edward (20 January 1895 – 11 July 1915). Their second son Victor Alexander (21 May 1891 – 17 January 1977) was wounded twice in the war, but survived. Their three daughters were Eve Alice (13 January 1900 – 1994) who married Vice-Admiral Richard Shelley, her twin sister Mary Edith (13 January 1900 – 1994), and Anne (8 October 1906 – 23 October 1924).
Cecil's first curacy was in Great Yarmouth, but this lasted for less than a year, because in 1888 his father had him appointed as Rector of Hatfield, which came with a fine rectory some distance from the town. However he persuaded his father to build him a smaller house nearer to the town so he could be closer to his parishioners. He remained in that post for the next 28 years, also becoming Rural Dean of Hertford from 1904; a chaplain to King Edward VII from 1909; and an honorary canon of St Alban's Cathedral from 1910. In 1908 he attended the fifth Lambeth Conference which led him to an interest in China, which country he later visited several times. He tried unsuccessfully to establish a Christian university there and in 1910, with his wife, he wrote a book: Changing China.
Bishopric
In 1916 the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, offered him the post of Bishop of Exeter, and although initially unwilling to move, he finally accepted. Trevor Beeson, in his book The Bishops (2002), expresses surprise at the appointment, stating that it was "easily the most extraordinary episcopal appointment of the twentieth century" because of his total unsuitability "by aptitude and experience for a bishopric". Beeson went on to surmise that only a person with a large personal income such as Cecil could have been appointed to the see at the time because one third of its annual income was being paid as a pension to his predecessor, Archibald Robertson who had resigned aged 63 and lived until 1931.
Cecil was bishop for the last two years of the Great War. He pressed women to take on jobs vacated by men. ‘The foulest task honours the hands of those who work for their country.’ He instructed clergy to keep up appearances in wartime ‘A gloomy face and a prognostication of evil is now not only unpatriotic but is also most unchristian.’