Ambrose Weekes
Anglican Suffragan Bishop in Europe (1919-2012)
Ambrose Walter Marcus Weekes (25 April 1919 – 24 April 2012) was an Anglo-Catholic bishop in the 20th century who served as the first Suffragan Bishop in Europe.
Family and education
Weekes was the son of William, a naval officer, and Ethel, a justice of the peace. He was educated at Rochester Cathedral Choir School, Sir Joseph Williamson's School, Rochester and King's College, London, where he gained his Associate of King's College (AKC) in theology in 1941 – he was later elected a Fellow of King's College (FKC) in 1972. He trained for the ministry at King's and at Lincoln Theological College.
Naval chaplain
He was ordained a deacon on Trinity Sunday (31 May) 1942 and a priest on Trinity Sunday (20 June) 1943 (both times by Christopher Chavasse, Bishop of Rochester, in Rochester Cathedral), serving his title as assistant curate of St Luke's, Gillingham, Kent. He then became a wartime chaplain with the RNVR (1944–1946) then served as a Royal Navy chaplain (1944–1969). He became Chaplain of the Fleet, with the title of Archdeacon of the Royal Navy, and an Honorary Chaplain to the Queen (QHC, all 1969–1972), also being made a Companion of the Bath (CB) in 1970 and a canon of Gibraltar Cathedral in 1971.
Europe
Moving to the Diocese of Gibraltar, Weekes served Tangier as their chaplain from 1972 until he was appointed Dean of Gibraltar (1973–1978). On St James's day (25 July) 1977, he was consecrated a bishop (by Gerald Ellison, Bishop of London, in the chapel of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich), to serve as full-time Auxiliary/Assistant Bishop in Gibraltar diocese until the diocese was reformed into the Diocese in Europe in 1980, at which point he became the first Suffragan Bishop in Europe. He was based in Brussels as Dean of the Pro-Cathedral and retired from both posts in 1986.
The public source identifies “Ambrose Weekes” as anglican Suffragan Bishop in Europe (1919-2012). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ambrose, Weekes and Anglican.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4741873. VIAF identifies the subject as 311580382. The Library of Congress control number is no2014135748. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1919, 2012, 1941 and 1972.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ambrose Weekes” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.