James Roxburgh

Dec 18 2007 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

SHE was in pink lace and he was in his dog-collar and lounge suit. Together, they smiled beneath the magnifi-cent tower of their church, bursting the sky at 142ft over the seaside resort.

Between them, they had gathered 153 years of wisdom and humour, and now they anticipated a few more years of love and happiness.

Jim Roxburgh, whose measured voice and keen mind rose from rare generosity of spirit, was to enjoy nearly five years more with his bride, Audrey Wood.

“Bishop Jim” and Audrey had a great affection for Holy Trinity Church, Southport, where, a year later, he would celebrate the 60th anniversary of his ordination.

That service was conducted by his friend, Canon Rod Garner, of Holy Trinity, as was the wedding. At 12.30pm today, the canon will officiate at the service of celebration and thanksgiving for Bishop Jim’s life.

The man himself had made meticulous arrangements for it, choosing some of his favourite hymns, including Thine Be The Glory. But, as Audrey noted, he was unable to arrange the date.

Attention to detail, combined with a vigorous expression of Christian faith, typified the career of a man who attended Whitgift School, Croydon, before graduating from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.

He then studied theology at Wycliffe College, Oxford, and was ordained into the Church of England.

From 1950 until 1956, he was vicar at St Matthew’s, Bootle, before moving to St Andrew’s and St Peter’s, Drypool, Hull, a fishers’ city, which some clergymen approached with the trepidation understood by comedians entering the Glasgow Empire. Even in those comparatively robust days for the church, the Hull community had a secular tilt.

For eight years from 1965, he was vicar at St Margaret’s, Barking, becoming honorary canon of Chelmsford Cathedral in 1972. He was then archdeacon of Colchester between 1977 and 1984 when he was appointed Bishop of Barking, a post he held until 1990.

Bishop Bill, avuncular in gold-rimmed spectacles, then returned to Merseyside. Although formally retired, he was made an assistant bishop in the Liverpool Diocese, settling in Southport and working as hard as ever.

His wife, Marjorie Hipkiss, with whom he had two children, died in 2002. The following year, he married Audrey, a widow and family friend, whom he had known through their association with Rotary and the Inner Wheel.

James Roxburgh, clergyman; born July 5, 1921, died December 10, 2007.