William Anderson (bishop of Salisbury)

William Louis Anderson DSC (United Kingdom) (1882–1972) was the Anglican Bishop of Portsmouth and then the Bishop of Salisbury. He also held what is believed to be the unique distinction of being the only bishop to have served in all three of the armed services.

Early life
Anderson was born at Tezpur, Assam, India on 11 February 1892, the younger son of James Drummond Anderson, a lecturer in Bengali at the University of Cambridge. He was educated as a scholar at St Paul's School (London). He graduated BA from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge in 1914 and MA in 1920.

Military service
He served throughout the Great War, initially in the 1st King Edward’s Horse, then the Royal Naval Air Service, and latterly in the newly formed Royal Air Force, ending the war with the relative rank of Captain and the DSC.

Ministry
On demobilisation he took Holy Orders at Ridley Hall, Cambridge and was ordained Deacon in 1920, Priest 1921. He married first Gwendoline Jones and together they had two sons. His first posts were as Chaplains to a succession of Royal Naval establishments.

Clerical rise
In 1928 he was appointed the Vicar of Sparkhill, Birmingham, taking on the additional responsibility of Rural Dean of Bordesley; in 1932, similar posts at Eastbourne. By 1937 he was Suffragan bishop of Croydon and in late 1941 he was appointed Bishop of Portsmouth to succeed the recently deceased Frank Partridge. In 1949 he transferred to the more senior See of Salisbury, a position he was to hold to his retirement in 1962. He died a decade later on 5 March 1972, a devotee of the countryside to the last.