The Very Reverend Patrick Mitchell
Dean of Windsor BORN MARCH 17, 1930 – DIED JANUARY 23, 2020, AGED 89
THE Very Reverend Patrick Mitchell became Dean of Windsor in 1989 and – as spiritual head of St George’s Chapel – confirmed Prince William in 1997.
An extremely popular Anglican priest, he became a trusted adviser to the Queen on church affairs.
His other high-ranking position was as Dean of Wells, where he helped raise £2.3 million with the Prince of Wales and worked on the restoration of the Gothic West Front of the cathedral.
Born in Somerset, the second son of Lt-Col Peter Reynolds Mitchell, he felt called to holy orders while attending Eton but first completed National Service as a Welsh Guards officer between 1948 and 1949.
He attended Merton College, Oxford, receiving a Second in Theology before arriving at Wells Theological College. Ordained in 1955, he began his ecclesiastical career with a curacy at St Mark’s Church, Mansfield, following which he was Priest-vicar of Wells Cathedral. Mitchell held incumbencies in Milton, Portsmouth and Frome Selwood, Somerset, before being appointed Dean of Wells in 1973.
He had a passion for medieval buildings, which was recognised in 1981 with his appointment to the Cathedrals Advisory Commission for England.
Mitchell held this position at Wells for 16 years until arriving at Windsor in 1989, retiring eight years later.
His first wife Mary Evelyn (née Phillips), whom he married in 1959, died in 1986, and in 1988 he married Pamela Douglas-Pennant, who died in 2016.
He is survived by three sons and one daughter from his first marriage, and a stepson and stepdaughter from his second marriage.