Issue:
Jonathan Hugh Carey
Peter Milligan Carey
Alister Mohun Carey
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Educated at Westminster, where he was King's Scholar,
and at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he read Greats and rowed for the
college. Joined the ecclesiastical solicitors Lee, Bolton and Lee, whose
offices at No 1 The Sanctuary share a party wall with Westminster Abbey.
During the Second World War, Carey served in the RNVR as secretary
to the commanding officer of Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships (DEMs)
in Bombay. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander, and at the time
of the Japanese surrender was busy with preparations for the retaking
of Singapore.
Admitted as a solicitor in 1947 and the next year became a partner
at Lee, Bolton and Lee. He later became a senior partner in 1975. In
1953, became Legal Secretary to the Bishop of Ely, and in 1957 undertook
the same responsibilities for the Bishop of Gloucester. In 1958, inherited
the job of Principal Registrar and Legal Secretary to the Archbishop
of Canterbury. His predecessor in the post was Sir Henry Dashwood, the
senior partner in his firm. who has served three Archbishops since 1913.
Was a steward at Westminster Abbey from 1948-1961, ultimately as Honorary
Chief Steward. He was a Governor of Westminster School from 1960-1992
and chaired the committees which selected the headmasters, John Rae
and David Summerscale. He was a Gold Staff Officer at the Queens Coronation
in 1953 and was appointed CBE in 1983.
He was chief legal adviser to four successive Archbishops of Canterbury:
Geoffrey Fisher, Michael Ramsey, Donald Coggan and Robert Runcie. These
four Archbishops differed considerably not only in their personalities
but also in their churchmanship. Carey, however, became a trusted legal
secretary to all of them. His duties entailed frequent, often daily,
meetings with the archbishop.
A particularly thorny question upon which he was required to give
advice concerned the transfer of powers from the Archbisop of Canterbury
to the Archbishops of the Anglican Communion in other parts of the world.
This was one of the most important constitutional reforms in the history
of the Anglican church.
He was a quiet, disciplined man who never jumped into speech, Carey
has a reassuring calmness about him. However pressing the crisis, he
could be guaranteed to remain utterly reliable and discreet. He was
an astute judge of people as well as of Church matters, so that the
advice he gave was shrewd as well as precise. He was sustained by a
strong Christian faith. In 1978, Donald Coggan awarded Carey a Lambeth
degree in recognition of his legal work.
Four years later, at the General Synod, Robert Runcie paid tribute
to him as 'a wise counsellor, not only to me but also a vast number
of people - bishops, clergy and laity - who have sought his help in
constitution-writing of the Anglican Communion since the last war'.
Source: The Daily Telegraph - 14 Feb 2000 - Obituary
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