Stanley Booth-Clibborn

Stanley Eric Francis Booth-Clibborn (20 October 1924 – 6 March 1996) was a British Anglican bishop in the late 20th century. He was Bishop of Manchester from 1979 to 1992. He was well known during his episcopal ministry for his outspoken political views and interventions on behalf of the poor.

Booth-Clibborn was the great-grandson of William Booth, the founder of The Salvation Army. He was educated at Highgate School. He was called up to the British Army during World War II, and served in the Royal Artillery and the Royal Indian Artillery. Having returned to England after five years military service, he studied history at Oriel College, Oxford, and then trained for the priesthood at Westcott House, Cambridge.

Booth-Clibborn was ordained in the Church of England. He served two curacies in the Diocese of Sheffield in the first half of the 1950s. In 1956, he emigrated to Kenya where he worked for the Christian Council of Kenya, and then for a newspaper. In 1967, he returned to England and was Priest-in-Charge of a group of inner-city churches in Lincoln. Then, from 1970 to 1979, he was Vicar of the Church of St Mary the Great, Cambridge; Great St Mary's is the university church of the University of Cambridge.

In 1978, it was announced that Booth-Clibborn would be the next Bishop of Manchester, the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Manchester in the north of England. The following year, he was consecrated a bishop and took up the post. In 1985, he joined the House of Lords as a Lord Spiritual. He retired from full-time ministry in 1992.