Portsmouth Cathedral

is 75 years old FrHE graceful and lofty Cath-1" edral of St. John, Portsmouth was the SEEM on Sunday of 75th anniversary celebrations of its opening, when the structure was only one-quarter completed. The Bishop (Archbishop J. H. King) sang the Anniversary Mass.
Portsmouth became a diocese in 1882, as the result of a division of the Southwark diocese, and Bishop Verlue was its first ruler,
The Cathedral suffered damage during the last war, but much of this has now been made good.
Cathedral parishioners have honoured the Anniversary by providing a rew cloth of gold Altar Frontal, for use on the greater feasts The Foundation stone of the new Cathedral ohen planned as a parish church) to be dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, was laid by James Danell, Bishop of Southwark, in 1880. The primary structure was completed two years later.
By a Papal Decree of May 19, 1882, the counties of Hampshire, Berkshire, the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands were formed into a separate Diocese, of which the episcopal see was to be in the City of Portsmouth. The first Bishop of Portsmouth was the Rt. Revs Iohn Vertue, and the official opening of the Cathedral coincided therefore with the enthronement of the new Bishop in his Cathedral, and his taking possession of his See.