Hugh Ashdown

Hugh Edward Ashdown[1] (5 July 1904[2] – 26 December 1977) was an eminent Anglican clergyman in the mid 20th Century.[3]

Ashdown was educated at St. John's School, Leatherhead, and Keble College, Oxford, his first post after ordination was as a curate at St Mary’s Portsea, Portsmouth.[4] He was then a chaplain and lecturer at Lincoln Theological College and then the perpetual curate of St Aidan’s, West Hartlepool and after that Rector of Houghton-le-Spring.[5] From 1948 he was the provost of Southwark Cathedral. After his nomination on 15 March, he was consecrated to the episcopate on 1 May 1957 as the 8th bishop of Newcastle, a post he held for 16 years until his 2 October 1972 retirement. He died on Boxing Day 1977.