Oliver Claude Allison CBE (28 May 1908 – 7 June 1989)[1] was a Christian missionary and the Bishop of the Sudan for over 20 years in the second part of the 20th century.[2][3]


Oliver C. Allison

Bishop of the Sudan
Two bishops in robes
Reverends Oliver Allison (right) and Morris Gellsthorpe, 1948
Appointed1952
Term ended1974
PredecessorMorris Gelsthorpe
Orders
Ordination1933
Personal details
Born(1908-05-28)28 May 1908
Stafford, England
Died7 June 1989(1989-06-07) (aged 81)
DenominationAnglican
EducationDean Close School
Alma materQueens' College, Cambridge

Life edit

Educated at Dean Close School, Cheltenham and Queens' College, Cambridge,[4] he was ordained in 1933 and began his ecclesiastical career with a curacy in Boscombe.[5]

1932-36 Curate at Christ Church Fulwood (Sheffield) Also Scout Master of the 142nd Sheffield (Fulwood) Scout Troop for same dates.

1936-38 Youth Secretary to Winchester Diocese

1938 Accepted by Church Missionary Society (CMS) and left for Anglo Egyptian Sudan. He began what was to be along association with the Sudan by becoming a Missionary in Juba followed by a stint as Assistant Bishop of the diocese. Elevated to the Episcopate

1947 Became Mission Secretary for Sudan.

1948 Consecrated Bishop, to be the assistant Bishop to Rt Rev Morris Gelsthorpe who was the first Bishop of the new diocese of Sudan, no longer linked with Egypt, but still under the Archbishopric of Jerusalem.

1953 Became Diocesan Bishop on Gelsthorpe's retirement. His pastoral duties extended to oversight of Churches in Yemen, Aden, Eritrea, Ethiopia & Samaliland.

1955 Consecration of first Sudanese Assistant Bishop.

1956-1972 Unrest in Sudan.

1972 Peace talks culminated in the Addis Ababa Agreement in which the South was promised autonomy from the North. A few missionaries were allowed to return.

1974 Retired. When back in England he did a lot of work to help through the Sudan Church Association.

Returning to England he often preached about his eventful life at parishes who wanted to know more about the region[6]

Allison died on 7 June 1989, at the age of 81.[7]

Notes edit

  1. ^ "Allison, Oliver C".
  2. ^ ”Who’s Who 2007 London,A&C Black, 2006 ISBN 978-0-7136-8555-8
  3. ^ "Allison, Oliver C." African Christian Biographies. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  4. ^ Crockford's Clerical Directory 1975-76 London: Oxford University Press, 1976 ISBN 0-19-200008-X
  5. ^ Then Hampshire; now Dorset
  6. ^ ”A History of Christianity in Petersfield” Leaton,E.(Ed)(2001, Petersfield, Petersfield Area Historical Society: Monograph Number 4) ISSN 0262-5970
  7. ^ "Allison, Rt. Rev Oliver Claude". WHO WAS WHO 2022. Retrieved 30 December 2022.