Robert Alexander Kennedy Runcie was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, in on 2nd October 1921. Educated at Merchant Taylor’s School, Crosby he went up to Brasenose College, Oxford. He was commissioned from Sandhurst into the Scots Guards in November 1942 and commanded a troop of Churchill tanks in the battle for Europe, winning the Military Cross in 1945. His citation states that he rescued two soldiers from a burning tank whilst under fire and the next day knocked out two enemy self-propelled guns and an 88mm gun. He was also amongst the first British troops to enter the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

After his demob, he returned to Oxford to study Classics before being ordained into the Church of England in 1950, first working as a curate in Newcastle. Marked out as a rising star, Runcie was consecrated as Bishop of St Albans in 1970.

In 1979 Robert Runcie was selected as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the senior Bishop of the Church of England. During his tenure, he frequently clashed with the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, over the Conservative Party policies of individualism and wealth creation. In 1981 he officiated at the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. Despite considerable opposition, he sought to bring the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches together and, in a gesture of goodwill, prayed together with Pope John Paul II on the Papal visit to the UK in 1982.

Unfortunately, the ‘honeymoon’ period ended soon afterwards when he preached penitence and reconciliation at the Falklands War Thanksgiving service against the triumphalist mood of the time. From then on, it was open season for the Archbishop in the tabloid press.

Deeply moved by the kidnap and imprisonment of his special envoy to Lebanon, Terry Waite, from 1987-1991 he nevertheless visited the Pope in Rome in 1989.

For the remainder of his time in office he maintained a conservative approach to the growing issues of the ordination of women and the Anglican Church’s view on homosexuality. Retiring in 1991, Robert Runcie was created a life peer as Baron Runcie of Cuddesdon. He died in 2000 and is buried in the grounds of St Albans Cathedral. His dry sense of humour was revealed when asked to write the postscript to his biography, which controversially revealed details of his private views on the breakdown of the marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales. He wrote: “I have done my best to die before this book is published. It now seems possible that I may not succeed!”

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