Derek Pattinson

Sir William Derek Pattinson (31 March 1930 – 10 October 2006) was secretary-general of the General Synod of the Church of England from 1972 until 1990.

Early life Pattinson was born at Barrow-in-Furness, the only child of civil servant Thomas William Pattinson and Elizabeth (née Burgess), a primary school teacher. He was educated at the County Grammar School, Whitehaven, and at The Queen's College, Oxford, where, despite having won the Stanhope Historical Essay Prize, he obtained only Second Class in the Final Honour School of Modern History. He received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1952 and Master of Arts in 1956. He had been a member of the Church of England since his childhood and, during his time at Oxford, he moved from the low church tradition to Anglo-Catholicism. An alternative version states that he grew up an Anglo-Catholic but that his religious enthusiasm waned at Oxford and he returned to the church when working as a civil servant.

Career Civil service He entered HM Civil Service, working in the Inland Revenue from 1952 until 1962 and HM Treasury from 1962 to 1965, returning in 1965 as assistant secretary at the Inland Revenue and then transferring back to HM Treasury in 1968.

General Synod In 1970 Gerald Ellison, then Bishop of Chester, suggested that he should apply for the position of Associate Secretary-General of the General Synod of the Church of England,

He was not enthusiastic about the ordination of women but regarded it as inevitable and was quite happy with women priests when they were eventually ordained. He was a keen promoter of black and other ethnic minority members of the synod. He was also a key figure in the establishment of the Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe.

Shortly before his retirement in 1990 he was appointed Knight Bachelor by the Queen in the Queen's Birthday Honours, and he received the accolade on 6 November 1990. At this point he was thinking about ordination and, since Church of England clergy are not allowed to receive the accolade, it has been suggested that it was impolitic of him to accept the honour. He trained for two terms at St Deiniol's Library and was ordained deacon in 1991 by Graham Leonard. The service was threatened with interruption by a journalist from The Daily Mail who wanted to know whether Sir Derek was gay.

Sir Derek Pattinson and Barnaby Miln JP photographed in 1986. Sir Derek is wearing the insignia of Master of the Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks.

Barnaby Miln returned in September 2000 to live with and care for Sir Derek whose health had deteriorated. In the last edition of Who's Who published before Sir Derek's death Barnaby Miln was named as his partner, He was a member of the Athenaeum Club and the Savile Club. He had held numerous other appointments including membership of the Archbishops' Commission on Church and State (1966–70) and the British Council of Churches (1972–90), the vice-chairmanship of the Grosvenor Chapel Committee (1973–81), the chairmanship of Liddon Trustees (1972–2001), the William Temple Association, and of the English Friends of the Anglican Centre in Rome (1985–2001), and the principalship of the Society of the Faith (1992–2001). He was Churchwarden of St Michael's, Cornhill and Parish Clerk of St Luke's, Old Street.