Alfred Blomfield

{{for|the British architect|Alfred W. Blomfield}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}

{{Infobox Christian leader

| name = Alfred Blomfield

| title = Bishop of Colchester

| image = Alfred Blomfield Lock & Whitfield.jpg

| image_size =

| alt =

| caption =

| diocese = Diocese of St Albans

| term = 1882–1894

| successor = Henry Johnson

| other_post = Archdeacon of Essex {{nowrap|(1878–1882)}}
Archdeacon of Colchester {{nowrap|(1882–1894)}}

| ordination = 1858 (priest)

| ordained_by =

| consecration = 1882

| consecrated_by = Archibald Tait

| birth_date = {{birth date|1833|8|31|df=y}}

| birth_place = Fulham, Middlesex, England

| death_date = {{death date and age|1894|11|5|1833|8|31|df=y}}

| death_place = Brentwood, Essex, England

| buried =

| nationality = British

| religion = Anglican

| residence =

| parents =

| spouse =

| children =

| occupation =

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| education =

| alma_mater = Balliol College, Oxford
All Souls College, Oxford

}}

The Right Reverend Alfred Blomfield D.D.[http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp85774 NPG details]{{Cite book|last=Albans|first=Church of England Diocese of St|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6-ANAAAAQAAJ&dq=alfred+blomfield&pg=PA87|title=S. Albans Diocesan Calendar and County Handbook|date=1884|publisher=Benham and Company|pages=87|language=en}} (31 August 1833{{snd}}5 November 1894){{Church Times | title = Clerical obituary | archive = 1894_11_16_1226 | issue = 1660 | date = 16 November 1894 | page = 1226 | accessed = 29 December 2016 }}Obituary- The Bishop Of Colchester The Times, Tuesday, 6 November 1894; p. 10; Issue 34414; col. C. was an Anglican bishop”Church History in Queen Victoria's Reign” Fowler, M: Whitefish Kessinger Publishing, 2005 {{ISBN|1-4179-7356-0}} in the last decades of the 19th century.

Alfred was the youngest son of Charles James Blomfield, Bishop of London,“A memoir of Charles James Blomfield” Blomfield, A: London, B. Fellowes, 1863 and brother of architect Arthur Blomfield, children's writer Lucy Elizabeth Bather and Admiral Henry John Blomfield. He was educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford before being awarded a Fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford, where he gained his Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1855 and his Oxford Master of Arts (MA Oxon) in 1857. From 1857, he was a Curate at Kidderminster, then its Vicar, having been ordained priest in 1858 (and presumably deacon the previous year). At Kidderminster, he initially served under Thomas Legh Claughton as vicar, who he would later work alongside as the first Bishop of St Albans.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ujgNAAAAIAAJ&dq=alfred+blomfield&pg=PA7|title=The Essex Review: An Illustrated Quarterly Record of Everything of Permanent Interest in the County|date=1895|publisher=E. Durant and Company|language=en}}

After this, he held further incumbencies in St Philip's Stepney (1862–65),{{Cite web|title=Survey of London {{!}} St Philip's Church Library and the Royal London Museum|url=https://surveyoflondon.org/map/feature/1063/detail/|access-date=2022-01-23|website=surveyoflondon.org}} St Matthew's City Road (1865–71) in Islington,{{Cite book|last=Colchester.)|first=Alfred BLOMFIELD (Bishop of|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vOleAAAAcAAJ|title=Twenty Years at S. Matthew's. A paper read before the S. Matthew's Church Association, etc|date=1868|publisher=Joseph Masters|language=en}} and Barking (1871-1882, under the patronage of his former college){{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ujgNAAAAIAAJ&dq=alfred+blomfield&pg=PA7|title=The Essex Review: An Illustrated Quarterly Record of Everything of Permanent Interest in the County|date=1895|publisher=E. Durant and Company|pages=7|language=en}} becoming Archdeacon of Essex in the Diocese of St Albans (1878–1882)."The Clergy List, Clerical Guide and Ecclesiastical Directory" London, Hamilton & Co 1889 From there he moved to become Archdeacon of Colchester in the same diocese in 1882, an office which had previously been held by his father, and at the same time the first Bishop of Colchester (a suffragan bishop then in the Diocese of St Albans) in over 200 years, for twelve yearsThe Times, Thursday, Jan 03, 1894; pg. 3; Issue 34464; col G Ecclesiastical Intelligence — New Bishop of Colchester until 1894. He was ordained (consecrated) a bishop (on which day he took up the See of Colchester) by Archibald Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury, on 24 June 1882 at St Albans Cathedral. He died in post, in Brentwood, Essex leaving a widow. His tomb lies in the north transept of St Alban's Cathedral.{{Cite web|title=St Albans abbey: The abbey church building {{!}} British History Online|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/herts/vol2/pp488-507|access-date=2022-02-06|website=www.british-history.ac.uk}} he had become a Doctor of Divinity honoris causa (DD) by his university days prior to his consecration.[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Men_of_the_Time,_eleventh_edition/Blomfield,_Alfred WikiSource: Men of the Time, eleventh edition — Blomfield, Alfred] (Accessed 29 December 2016) He was a Select Preacher at Oxford in 1869.{{Cite book|last=Cooper|first=Thompson|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Men_of_the_Time,_eleventh_edition/Blomfield,_Alfred|title=Men of the Time, eleventh edition|chapter=Blomfield, Alfred }}

The National Portrait Gallery holds an 1883 Woodburytype photograph of Blomfield as Bishop of Colchester.{{Cite web|title=Alfred Blomfield - National Portrait Gallery|url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp85774/alfred-blomfield|access-date=2022-02-05|website=www.npg.org.uk|language=en}}