Remains of first bishop of Tasmania to be returned to Australia

The mortal remains of an Australian bishop who was buried in Nottingham have been exhumed in order for them to be returned to Tasmania.

The remains of Bishop Robert Willson, a priest in Nottingham who became the first Bishop of Hobart, Tasmania, are being transferred from St Barnabas’ Cathedral in Nottingham to St Mary’s Cathedral in Hobart.

Bishop Willson was born in Lincoln in 1794; baptised an Anglican, he later became a Catholic and, after ordination, built St John the Evangelist, the first purpose-built Catholic church in Nottingham since the Reformation, which opened in 1828.