| Biography | Leonard James Ashton CB QHC was an English Anglican bishop and military chaplain. He was the inaugural Bishop in Cyprus and the Gulf, serving from 1976 to 1983. He had previously spent most of his ordained ministry serving in the Chaplains Branch of the Royal Air Force, and rose to become its Chaplain-in-Chief (1969 to 1973).
Ashton was ordained in the Church of England as a deacon in 1942 and as a priest in 1943. From 1942 to 1945, he served his curacy in Cheadle in the Diocese of Chester. In 1945, Ashton was granted an emergency commission in the Chaplains Branch of the RAF and granted the relative rank of squadron leader. He was transferred to a permanent commission in 1950. In 1962, he returned to England and was promoted to Assistant Chaplain-in-Chief. From 1962 to 1965, he served at RAF Training Command. In 1969, he was appointed Chaplain-in-Chief of the RAF and promoted to the relative rank of air vice-marshal. As the most senior Anglican chaplain, he was also appointed Archdeacon for the Royal Air Force in the Church of England. After nearly 30 years serving in the Royal Air Force as a chaplain, Ashton retired from the military in 1973.
In 1974, Ashton was consecrated a bishop. From 1974 to 1976, he served as an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Jerusalem. In 1976, the Anglican presence in the region was reorganised: this resulted in the creation of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East and four new dioceses. One of these new diocese was the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf, and Ashton was appointed its first diocesan bishop as bishop in Cyprus and the Gulf. He was also an Episcopal Canon of St George's Cathedral, Jerusalem from 1976 to 1983. |