Location
Under the southern arch to the Baptistry (see Cathedral Plan).
BEFORE THE HIGH ALTAR
OF THIS CATHEDRAL WERE
GIVEN BY HIS FRIENDS AS
PART OF A MEMORIAL TO
FRANK PARTRIDGE
D.D.
2ND BISHOP OF PORTSMOUTH
1936-1941
WHOSE INSPIRATION AND
ENERGY THE CHURCH OF
ENGLAND OWES CHURCH
HOUSE WESTMINSTER. IT
WAS DURING HIS EPISCOPATE
THAT THE FIRST THREE BAYS
OF THIS NAVE
WERE BUILT
Further Information
In 1936 the first bishop of Portsmouth, Neville Lovett, was transferred to Salisbury Cathedral. He was succeeded by Frank Partridge, Archdeacon of Oakham, who was described by Terry Louden in "Forever Building" (p90) as combining "the qualities of a staff officer and an ecclesiastical civil servant". Partridge certainly brought organisational energy to the diocese, talking about turning it into a "power house" and the cathedral as being the "volcanic headquarters".
He immediately turned his attention to the planned extension of the church for which he was instrumental in raising the money for construction on the first three bays of the nave to begin. Sadly that was as far as it got before the outbreak of war and how it remained for several decades. Bishop Partridge died suddenly on 1st October 1941.
