Graham Chadwick

Even in retirement he continued to offer personal counselling until the early part of 2007. After suffering a variety of health problems, he died on 28 October 2007, five minutes after receiving the Eucharist.

Chadwick's Funeral Mass, celebrated by Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, took place in Salisbury Cathedral on 5 November 2007. On 6 November there was a further Requiem Mass celebrated in the church at Oystermouth in Swansea, where Chadwick had served his curacy. This service was conducted by John Davies, Bishop of St Asaph; with Anthony Pierce, Bishop of Swansea and Brecon; and Saunders Davies, retired Bishop of Bangor, also in attendance. After this service, Chadwick was buried in Oystermouth cemetery.

In 1995, at the age of 72, he moved for the last time, to Salisbury to take up the post of Director of Spirituality at the newly established Sarum College, finally retiring in 1998.

In 1990 Chadwick was persuaded by David Sheppard, Bishop of Liverpool – himself well known for ecumenical work – to become an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Liverpool.

On his enforced return to Britain, Chadwick began working as a chaplain at St Asaph's Cathedral and as diocesan adviser on spirituality. In 1985, with Father Gerard Hughes SJ and Sister Mary Rose Fitzsimmons he co-founded the Llysfasi Spirituality Workshop which developed an international influence. He was also heavily involved in the l'Arche communities.

Chadwick continued to work closely with other senior South African clergy, including Desmond Tutu (then secretary of the South African Council of Churches), and to speak out against injustice. As a result, in 1982 the authorities refused to renew his work permit. At the time he was visiting the homeland of Bophuthatswana so found himself stranded there. At first he attempted to continue running his diocese from the Anglican hospital there, but it soon became clear that this was not a viable long-term option. He managed to return to Kimberley in order to conduct the Easter services, and in one final show of defiance, preached in both the local languages of Sesotho and Setswana and (for the benefit of the police), Afrikaans. The following day, he and his family were escorted to the airport and deported, watched by a large contingent of armed police with dogs, and 50,000 (mainly black) protesters.

After six years running the centre, the leadership skills he had demonstrated there saw him selected in 1976 as the next Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman in South Africa. He was enthroned in St Cyprian's Cathedral, Kimberley in a service complete with fanfares from Salvation Army trumpeters.

In 1970 Chadwick returned to Lesotho, where as Diocesan Missioner he was to build an ecumenical conference and training centre in Maseru, with the aim of building racial equality and reconciliation.

In 1963 Chadwick returned to Britain, taking up a position as chaplain at University College of Swansea (then part of the federal University of Wales) for five years. Here he strongly influenced many students, amongst them one Rowan Williams.

He completed his training at St Michael's College, Llandaff, and in 1950 was appointed to a curacy in Oystermouth in Swansea. Here he met Suzanne Tyrell – whom he would marry in 1955. He had begun to consider missionary work, and a chance meeting with John Maund, Bishop of Lesotho, led him to move to Lesotho in 1953. He taught himself Sesotho on the voyage to Cape Town, and for the next ten years ministered throughout Lesotho, covering up to 2000 miles a year on horseback. A major achievement of this period of ministry was the establishment of St Stephen's High School, Mohales Hoek, still regarded as one of the finest schools in southern Africa.

When he left the school in 1939 at the age of sixteen, he was unsure of his vocation to ordination, and he spent the first three years of the Second World War maintaining station clocks on the railway line from Swansea to mid-Wales. In 1942 he joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, and once his linguistic talents were identified, he was appointed a midshipman. Japanese language training at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London was followed by a posting to Sri Lanka and by an assignment as an intelligence officer to the Pacific theatre, where he served on HMS Indefatigable and HMS Formidable and lost a close friend in a Japanese kamikaze attack. After VJ day he was involved in the interrogation of Japanese war criminals being held in Australian POW camps. He left the navy with the rank of sub-lieutenant.

Graham Charles Chadwick (3 January 1923 – 28 October 2007) was a British Christian missionary in Lesotho (1953–1963; 1970–1976) and South Africa (1976–1982). On his election as Anglican Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman in 1976 he campaigned strongly against the racist apartheid policies of the South African government. As a result, he was expelled from South Africa in 1982 and returned to Britain. Afterwards he assisted in the dioceses of St Asaph's, Liverpool and Salisbury.