Rodney Eden

George Rodney Eden (called Rodney; 9 September 1853 – 7 January 1940) was an Anglican bishop, Bishop of Dover (a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Canterbury) and then Bishop of Wakefield (diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Wakefield). Background He was born in Sunderland, the son of John Patrick Eden, Rector of Sedgefield and an honorary canon of Durham Cathedral; and was a descendant of Robert Eden, 3rd Baronet (of West Auckland) and of the eighteenth century naval hero, Admiral Rodney, after whom he was named. He was educated at Reading School and Pembroke College, Cambridge. His daughter, Dorothy, was the first woman in the First World War to be Mentioned in Despatches for ‘bravery while nursing’ in January, 1917. She later married Clement Ricketts who became Bishop of Dunwich (1945–55). Eden died at Harpenden, Hertfordshire, and was buried at Great Haseley, Oxfordshire. His reputation was that of a dedicated and busy ecclesiastical leader attached to his Wakefield diocese who refused translation to a more prestigious see. He was one of the most photogenic of bishops, ‘With his wavy, silver hair, his clear-cut ivory-coloured face, his candid blue eyes, his musical voice, and his eighteenth-century air of courtesy and welcome, in appearance he was the embodiment of what a bishop should be’.