George Knight-Bruce

{{Short description|English-born Anglican bishop active in Southern Africa (1853 - 1896)}}{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}

File:Memorial to George Wyndham Hamilton Knight Bruce in Exeter Cathedral.jpg]]

George Wyndham Hamilton Knight-Bruce was an Anglican bishop serving in Southern Africa, first as bishop of Bloemfontein and then as the inaugural bishop of Mashonaland, in the late nineteenth century. Knight-Bruce was born in 1853 and, having retired early owing to ill health, died in 1896.

Education and early appointments

File:Coats of Arms of George Knight-Bruce.svgHe was born in 1852 in Devonshire, was the eldest son of Lewis Bruce Knight-Bruce of Roehampton Priory, Surrey, and his wife (and cousin), Caroline Margaret Eliza, only daughter of Thomas Newte Mountford Newte of Tiverton in Devonshire. Sir James Lewis Knight-Bruce was his grandfather.{{sfn|Carlyle|1901}}

He was educated at Eton and Merton College, Oxford,"Who was Who" 1897–2007 London, A & C Black, 2007 {{ISBN|978-0-19-954087-7}} and ordained in 1887."The Clergy List, Clerical Guide and Ecclesiastical Directory" London, Hamilton & Co 1889 He began his career with curacies at Bibury and Wendron. He then held incumbencies at St George's Church, Everton and Bethnal Green. During this period the Oxford House Settlement was established.{{sfn|Carlyle|1901}}

Southern Africa

On 25 March 1886, he elevated to the episcopate, Knight-Bruce went to South Africa as bishop of Bloemfontein in 1886.{{cite book|last=Stubbs|first=William |title=Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum: An Attempt to Exhibit the Course of Episcopal Succession in England from the Records and Chronicles of the Church| url=https://archive.org/details/registrumsacruma00stubrich| year=1897| publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford}} Translated to Mashonaland as its first bishop in 1891,[http://www.historicalpapers.wits.ac.za/inventory.php?iid=7302 Wits Historical Papers] he resigned in 1895.

Knight-Bruce was accompanied by the lay catechist and, ultimately, martyr, Bernard Mizeki, (c 1861-1896) who under Knight-Bruce and his successor Bishop Gaul would carry out missionary work amongst the Shona people.

Knight-Bruce left an account of this missionary endeavour in his published Journals of the Mashonaland Mission 1888 to 1892,{{cite book|url=http://anglicanhistory.org/africa/knight-bruce_mashonaland1892/ |title=Journals of the Mashonaland Mission 1888 to 1892|author-link=G. W. H. Knight-Bruce|first=G. W. H. |last=Knight-Bruce|publisher=Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts|date=1892|via=Project Canterbury}} and in subsequent reminiscences under the title Memories of Mashonaland.{{cite book|url=http://anglicanhistory.org/africa/knight-bruce_mashonaland1895/ |title=Memories of Mashonaland|author-link=G. W. H. Knight-Bruce|first=G. W. H. |last=Knight-Bruce|location=London and New York|publisher= Edward Arnold|date= 1895 |via=Project Canterbury}}

The Bishop retired early due to ill health.

Return to England

On his return to England he was appointed rector of Bovey Tracey and an assistant bishop within the Diocese of Exeter, posts he held until his death on 16 December 1896.The Times, Thursday, 17 Dec 1896; p. 6; Issue 3576; col C Obituary Bishop Knight-Bruce