The Right Reverend Peter Doyle
Bishop of Northampton
Peter John Haworth Doyle was born on 3rd May 1944 at Wilpshire, near Blackburn in Lancashire. The eldest son of John and Alice Doyle, he has two brothers, Christopher and John, and one sister, Alison. His mother died in 1976. His father remarried in 1978 and he and Peter's stepmother, Catherine, now live in Southsea.
The family moved to Essex in 1951, and Bishop Doyle was educated by the Jesuits at St. Ignatius Prep School, Buckhurst Hill and at St. Ignatius College, Stamford Hill. Having won a scholarship to Sandhurst he was due to go there after his "A" levels and then onto the Royal Artillery. However, in his final year at school, he decided rather hesitatingly to offer himself for the priesthood. By then the family had moved to Hampshire where his father had been appointed to his fourth headship at the new All Hallows School in Famham. Bishop Doyle decided to approach the Diocese of Portsmouth. Archbishop John Henry King accepted him as a student for the priesthood, and he was sent to Allen Hall, at Ware in Hertfordshire.
Monsignor Doyle was ordained priest by Bishop Derek Worlock in St. John's Cathedral, Portsmouth on 8th June 1968.
Since then Bishop Doyle has always worked in parishes in the Diocese of Portsmouth - assistant priest at St. Joseph's, Copnor 1968-70, assistant priest at St. Edward's, Windsor 1970-75, administrator at St. John's Cathedral, Portsmouth 1975-87, parish priest at St. Joseph's, Maidenhead 1987-91, and parish priest at St. Peter's, Winchester 1991-2005 and also at St. Gregory's, Alresford since 2004.
He was a member of the Council of Priests, a Consultor and a member of the Cathedral Chapter and since 2001 a member of the Bishop's Council and a Vicar General. In the past he has been Dean of Portsmouth and of Winchester, has chaired various school governing bodies, and was Chairman of the Diocesan Schools Commission and the Diocesan Religious Education Council. In the autumn of 2003 he was the Diocesan Administrator while Bishop Crispian Hollis was on sabbatical.
Since 1994 he has enjoyed the privilege of being a member of the Old Brotherhood of the English Secular Clergy from which he has to resign on his appointment as Bishop.
To relax Bishop plays golf badly with his fellow clergy. He always comes last in the Clergy Golf competitions! In earlier days he played rugby for Windsor and Portsmouth as a prop forward. He now enjoys watching rugby.
He was ordained as the 12th Bishop of Northampton on 28th June 2005 by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor.
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