The Right Rev. Cecil Wilson, third and present Bishop of Melanesia, is the youngest son of Mr. Alexander Wilson, and was born in London in 1860. He was educated at Tunbridge School, Kent, and studied at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he took the degree of B.A. in 1882, and M.A. in 1885. Mr. Wilson studied for holy orders, and was ordained deacon in 1886 by Dr. Harold Browne, Bishop of Winchester, and priest in 1887. He was then appointed by Dr. Edgar Jacob, the present Bishop of Newcastle, to the curacy of Portsea, where he remained for five years in charge of one of the poorest districts in Portsmouth, called the St. Faith's mission. In 1891, he was appointed by Dr. Thorold, the newly-elected Bishop of Winchester, to the living of St. John's, Moordown, Bournemouth, where he officiated until Easter, 1894, when he was selected by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop John Selwyn for the vacant post of Melanesia in succession to Bishop Selwyn himself who had then been an invalid for two years. Mr. Wilson left England in April of the same year, and was consecrated in St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral, Auckland, on the 11th of June, St. Barnabas' Day. Bishop Wilson immediately proceeded by the Mission auxiliary schooner “Southern Cross” to the islands of Melanesia, and under him the work of the mission has been marked by steady and substantial progress. In February, 1899, Bishop Wilson was married to Alice Ethel, daughter of Bishop Julius, of Christchurch, and the ceremony was performed in the Christchurch Cathedral.