Stuart Blanch, Baron Blanch

31

Stuart Blanch, Baron Blanch : biography

2 February 1918 – 3 June 1994

Blanch was enthroned as ninety-fourth Archbishop of York on 25 February 1975. Of his years as Archbishop, Williams writes, "A superb pastor, he presided over a happy diocese and travelled widely in his province. … No lover of bureaucracy, he was described as the most unecclesiastical of archbishops." One admirer, noting his common touch, said that he wore a flat cap underneath his mitre. In fact, as an evangelical, Blanch was not enthusiastic about vestments and seldom wore a mitre.

Blanch’s reputation as a theologian and lecturer continued to grow. The Guardian said of him, "At York, Blanch emerged as one of the most thoughtful and touching preachers ever to occupy an archiepiscopal throne." Williams notes that while at York, Blanch made ten working trips abroad, carrying out engagements in fifteen countries, in Europe, Australasia, Asia and the Americas. Academically his strong point was Old Testament scholarship, and this enabled him to establish close ties with the Jewish community.

In 1981 Blanch suffered a breakdown in his health. He was absent from his ecclesiastical work for only a month, but thereafter, according to The Times:

He resigned in 1983, and was the first retiring Archbishop of York to be made a life peer.

Last years

Blanch retired to Oxfordshire, living first in Bloxham and then in Shenington. He conducted services at Shenington parish church, and continued to lecture and write. He made four more lecture trips abroad after retiring from York, and wrote two more books.

Blanch died of cancer at a hospice in Banbury, Oxfordshire at the age of 76, and was buried in Shenington churchyard. He was survived by his wife, son, and three of the four daughters, the eldest predeceasing him.

Notes

Category:1918 births Category:1994 deaths Category:Anglican Bishops of Liverpool Category:Archbishops of York Category:Life peers Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:20th-century Anglican archbishops Category:Ordained peers Category:People educated at Alleyn’s School Category:Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Category:Evangelical Anglicans