The Archbishop of Canterbury, the most senior cleric in the worldwide Anglican Communion, said on Friday that a DNA test had revealed that his biological father was not the whiskey salesman who had married his mother, but the man who had been the last private secretary for Sir Winston Churchill.
In an unusually frank statement on his website, the Most Rev. Justin Welby said he discovered the truth “in the last month,” after taking the test.
“This comes as a complete surprise,” he said.
The archbishop said his father had been a British diplomat, Sir Anthony Montague Browne, who served as a private secretary to Mr. Churchill in the last years of his life.
Churchill, who was the prime minister of Britain, died in 1965. Browne died in 2013 at age 89.
Archbishop Welby, 60, said that he had long believed his father was Gavin Welby, and that he had released his statement because of “media reports” on the matter.
The revelation was reported by The Daily Telegraph, which said that it had “pieced together evidence” about the archbishop’s father and had presented that evidence to him.
The Telegraph said Archbishop Welby then decided to have the DNA test.
Former Telegraph editor, Charles Moore, who broke the story, said the archbishop was “very, very surprised” when the DNA tests were revealed to him.
“The dates looked impossible because he was born almost exactly nine months after his mother married Gavin Welby, and so it was natural to think that he was a honeymoon baby.”
In his statement, Archbishop Welby said that both his mother and Welby, who The Telegraph reported had been the son of a Jewish immigrant, had been alcoholics, and that Welby died “as a result of the alcohol and smoking in 1977.”
“As a result of my parents’ addictions my early life was messy, although I had the blessing and gift of a wonderful education, and was cared for deeply by my grandmother, my mother once she was in recovery, and my father (Gavin Welby) as far as he was able,” he said.
In her own statement, his mother, Jane Williams, also known as Lady Williams of Elvel, said the DNA result “has come as an almost unbelievable shock.”
She said that before marrying Welby, in 1955, “I went to bed with Anthony Montague Browne.” She said the encounter had been fuelled “by a large amount of alcohol on both sides.”
“It appears that the precautions taken at the time didn’t work and my wonderful son was conceived as a result of this liaison,” she said.
After she wed Welby, her son “was born almost nine months to the day after our marriage,” she said.
That marriage ended in 1958, according to her statement.
Archbishop Welby said his mother “has not touched alcohol for over 48 years.”
“I am enormously proud of her,” he said, ending his statement: “What has changed? Nothing.”
Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, and brought up an only child, Archbishop Welby spent 11 years as an oil executive, before giving up a six-figure salary in 1987 to train as an Anglican priest.
The decision followed a personal tragedy in 1983 with the death of his seven-month-old daughter, Johanna, in a car crash.
In 2002, he became canon at Coventry Cathedral, before serving as Dean of Liverpool Cathedral and the Bishop of Durham.
He succeeded Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Canterbury in February 2013, becoming the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, composed of about 85 million members around the globe.
