Bishop and war hero dies aged 85

A BISHOP who was said to have been born under a table in Walmer during a wartime raid, and went to school in Dover, has died. The Rt Rev Eric Mercer, who went on to become Bishop of Exeter, died on November 8, aged 85.

It was during a Zeppelin raid on December 6, 1917, that he was born as his mother took shelter beneath a table. His father was a painter and decorator.

He attended Dover Grammar School, where he was a keen athlete, and then went to a theological college run by the monastic Society of the Sacred Mission of Kelham in Nottinghamshire.

His training was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War when he enlisted in the local Sherwood Foresters and suffered severe leg and eye injuries while commanding a platoon at El Alamein.

He was Mentioned in Dispatches as the 14th Foresters fought themselves to a standstill at San Savino on the Gothic Line, Italy.

After the war he returned to Kelham after the war. He was curate at Coppenhall near Crewe from 1947 until 1951, then spent two years as a priest in a housing area near Cheadle before becoming Rector of St Thomas's, Stockport.

Regarded as a gifted pastor and preacher, and as a forward looking church leader, he became diocesan missioner, a post he combined with that of Rector of the small city parish of St Bridget with St Martin, Chester, and he became an Honorary Canon of Chester Cathedral in 1964.

He was appointed to the Suffragan Bishopric of Birkenhead in 1965 and Bishop of Exeter from 1973 until 1985.

In November 1966, he presented the prizes at the Boys' Grammar School speech day at Dover Town Hall. In his speech he advised parents to be patient with their children and told the boys they should be patient with their parents. From 1976 until 1985 he was deputy chairman of the Church Commissioners' Pastoral Committee, which involved dealing the re-organisation of parishes throughout the country.

As national chairman of the Church of England Men's Society, he presided over the final years of that society.

When he retired as Bishop of Exeter, he became a country priest and was vicar of Hindon with Chicklade and Pertwood, near Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, for three years.

He was an enthusiastic angler and a talented painter.

He leaves a widow, Rosemary, and a son Patrick, who became Conservative MP for Newark and Retford in 2001.