Portsmouth Bishop consecrated in 1975

A joyous peal rang in south-west London as a poignant new era started for the 130 parishes in the Portsmouth Diocese. The bells of the Abbey Church of Westminster proclaimed that Reverend Archibald Ronald McDonald Gordon, Bishop-designate of Portsmouth, had been consecrated. Bishop Gordon was prepared to lead his new flock in south-east Hampshire, the Meon Valley and the Isle of Wight. Pictured is the new bishop, front left, joined by the Archbishop of Canterbury Donald Coggan, centre, and the Bishop of Woolwich, Reverend Eric Marshall, leaving Westminster.