5
December 1945 A.D. Cosmo
Gordon Lang Dies—97th of 105 Archbishops of Canterbury
Editors.
“Cosmo Gordon Lang.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 2 Jul 2012. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/329619/Cosmo-Gordon-Lang-Baron-Lang
. Accessed 11 Jun 2014.
Cosmo Gordon Lang, Baron Lang, in full William Cosmo Gordon Lang, Baron Lang
of Lambeth (born October 31, 1864, Fyvie Manse, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland—died December 5, 1945, Kew
Gardens, Surrey, England), influential and versatile Anglican priest who, as archbishop of
Canterbury, was a close friend and adviser to King George VI. He was also
briefly suspected of having conspired to bring about the abdication in 1936 of
King Edward VIII, who married the American divorcée Wallis Simpson.
Abruptly abandoning
a legal career on the eve of his appointment to the bar, Lang enrolled at
Cuddesdon Theological College. After an assistant curacy in a Leeds slum, he became dean of divinity at Magdalen College, Oxford (1893–96),
and vicar of the university church (1894–96). He then served successively as
vicar of Portsea, Hampshire; suffragan bishop of Stepney, London; and archbishop of York. He was archbishop of
Canterbury from 1928 until his retirement in 1942, when George VI created him
Baron Lang of Lambeth and granted him a home at Kew.
Also a prominent
member of the House
of Lords, Lang was an ardent ecumenicist and
was active in the ministry to slum and industrial areas. Public opinion later
acquitted him of wrongdoing during the intrigue of 1936, when various officials
of the British government had sought the abdication of Edward VIII to prevent
his romance with Wallis Simpson from dividing the country.
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