William Henry Samuel Purcell (1912-1994) was Archdeacon of Dorking from 1968 until 1982.

Biography Purcell was born in or near to Norwich on 22 January 1912.Personal Column The Times (London, England), Tuesday, June 7, 1994; pg. 20; Issue 64974. Purcell was educated at Norwich School and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and ordained in 1938.Crockford's Clerical Directory 1975–76 p 806 London: Oxford University Press, 1976 After a curacy in Headingley, Yorkshire he was raised to the position of a Minor Canon of Ripon Cathedral in that county. He held incumbencies (as priest leading a church) at St Matthew, Chapel Allerton, in Leeds, Yorkshire and Epsom, Surrey before his appointment as Archdeacon which he retired at the age of 70.‘PURCELL, Ven. William Henry Samuel’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012; online edn, Nov 2012 accessed 1 Feb 2014 He lived a further 12 years until 4 June 1994.

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