Ross Hook (1917-1996)

ROSS Hook and Maurice Wood were the redoubtable second- row forwards in the rugby team at Ridley Hall, Cambridge in 1939. After ordination, they both went on to be RNVR chaplains, were both decorated on active service and both in due course became diocesan bishops.

Hook became examining chaplain to the Bishop of Lincoln who, in 1965, made him Bishop of Grantham.

But after only seven years he moved  to Bradford. He was quickly at home in the West Riding where his robustness and his forthright approach were much appreciated, especially by those with little interest in ecclesiastical affairs.

The  son of a postmaster, Ross was educated at Christ’s Hospital and Peterhouse, Cambridge. He was ordained in 1941 to his only curacy at New Milton in Hampshire. In 1943 he volunteered as an RNVR chaplain and served with the Royal Marines, landing with 43 Commando at Anzio.

He was the only RNVR chaplain to win a Military Cross, which he did while serving with the Marines in Yugoslavia.

After the war he married Ruth Biddell, who supported him to the full in all his demanding appointments and in the more restricted years after his retirement and illness. She survives him as do his daughter and his son, known to many television viewers as an expert on pictures through the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow.

He  returned to Cambridge as Chaplain at Ridley Hall,  and three years later,  went to his first living at Chorlton-cum-Hardy in Manchester diocese, then as Rector and Rural Dean of Chelsea.

He became Canon Residentiary of Rochester Cathedral and as director of post-ordination training for the diocese. He had the oversight of nearly 100 curates and he was also on the staff of Rochester Theological College which had been established for the training of older men from industry and the professions, most of whom had little academic background.

In 1980, Dr Robert Runcie became Archbishop of Canterbury wanted an experienced bishop in whom those in Whitehall and Parliament would have confidence and with whom the Diocesan Bishops would be happy to consult. He invited Ross Hook, then Bishop of Bradford, to become Bishop of Lambeth.

In 1984, after four years at Lambeth Palace, Hook retired to Romney Marsh. Sadly, after a few years, he suffered a stroke which eventually led to his moving out of the county.

He remained an enthusiastic cricket fan and was never happier than when watching Kent playing on home ground at Canterbury.

He died at Blandford, Dorset.