A former rector of St Peter's Church, Hascombe, has died at the age of 93.

John Robert Geoffrey Neale AKC became the first suffragan Bishop of Ramsbury in the Church of England when he moved on from St Peter's in 1974.

Educated at Felsted School, he served in the Royal Artillery during World War II.

He completed his studies at King's College London and St Boniface's, Warminster, and began his ordained ministry as a curate in St Helier.

He was made a deacon on Trinity Sunday (5th June) 1955 and ordained a priest the following Trinity Sunday (27 May 1956) — both times by Bertram Simpson, Bishop of Southwark, at Southwark Cathedral.

He was then, successively, the chaplain of Ardingly College, Secretary of the Advisory Council for Church Ministry, Canon Missioner for the Diocese of Guildford and Rector of St Peter's, Hascombe, before his consecration to the episcopate on 24th January 1974 by Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, at Westminster Abbey.

From October that year until 1980, he also served as Archdeacon of Wilts in the same diocese. Since 1991 he had been an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Bristol.

His papers are housed at the National Church Institutions Database of Manuscripts and Archives.