The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Webber, Right Rev. William Thomas Thornhill
Webber, Right Rev. William Thomas Thornhill, D.D., 3rd Bishop of Brisbane, is the son of William Webber of London, and was born on Jan. 30th, 1837. He was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, where he matriculated in 1856, and became B.A. in 1859, M.A. in 1862, and D.D. (honoris causa) in 1885. He was ordained deacon in 1860, and priest in 1861. After being for four years curate of Chiswick, Dr. Webber in 1864 became vicar of St. John the Evangelist, Holborn, a position which he retained till his appointment to the bishopric of Brisbane in 1885. As vicar of St. John's Dr. Webber displayed exceptional powers of organisation, the schools, guilds and other societies in connection with his Church being regarded as a model throughout London. He was also connected with the administration of some of the leading Metropolitan Charitable and Educational Agencies, being for twenty years a member of the Council of the Working Men's Club and Institute Union, Vice-President of the National Association for Promoting State-directed Emigration, from 1873 to 1875; Chairman of the Finance and Reference Committee of the Girls' Friendly Society from 1881 to 1885; and was a member of the London School Board representing the district of Finsbury from 1882 to 1885. Having been for twenty-one years one of the most useful and energetic clergymen in London, Dr. Webber was appointed to succeed Dr. Hale as Bishop of Brisbane, and was consecrated in St. Paul's Cathedral by the Archbishop of Canterbury on St. Barnabas Day 1885. He attended the Pan-Anglican Synod held at Lambeth in 1888, and returned to Brisbane in the following year.