High Street, Tonbridge,
Kent, TN9 1JP
William Alexander entered Tonbridge in Michaelmas Term 1836 from his family home in Derry, Ireland. He left in 1841 with a Judd Exhibition and a College Exhibition to go to Exeter College, Oxford from where he graduated in Classics. In 1847 he was ordained, serving as a parish priest in the Derry diocese but returned to Oxford for further study at Brasenose College.
He returned to Ireland, holding various livings as a priest, while at the same time receiving many invitations to lecture and preach elsewhere. A high church Anglican he was passionately against Home Rule for Ireland, and he wielded considerable influence within the Church of Ireland and on wider Irish matters. In 1867 he became Bishop of Derry and in 1896 Archbishop of Armagh, a see he held until his retirement in 1911. In 1867 Oxford University awarded him the degree of DD and in 1907 he became an honorary D.Litt and honorary Fellow of Brasenose. He died in 1911, the same year as he retired. He is the most senior church leader to have been educated at Tonbridge.
Alexander’s wife was Mrs. Cecil Frances Alexander, who wrote the famous hymns ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’, ‘There is a Green Hill Far Away’, and ‘Once in Royal David’s City’.