Hugh Foss (bishop)
Hugh James Foss (June 25, 1848 – March 24, 1932) was an Anglican bishop and the second Bishop of Osaka in the Anglican Church in Japan.
He was born in Petham, Kent, England, into a legal family; his father was Edward Foss, the author of The Judges of England. He studied at Marlborough College and Christ’s College, Cambridge, earning a B.A. in 1871 and an M.A. in 1874. Foss was ordained a deacon in 1872 and a priest in 1873. After a three-year curacy in Liverpool, he moved to Kobe, Japan, where in about 1876 he established St. Michael’s Church. He spent the rest of his ministry in Kobe, and helped translate The Imitation of Christ into vernacular English.
On February 2, 1899, Foss was consecrated Bishop of Osaka in Westminster Abbey by the Archbishop of Canterbury. He received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Cambridge at that time. Foss served as bishop until his resignation in 1923, after which he moved to Chilcomb Lodge in Winchester, Hampshire. He died on March 24, 1932.
Family life: Foss married Janet McEwen in 1880; they had a son, Charles Calveley Foss, who was awarded the Victoria Cross in World War I. Janet died in 1894. He married Lina Janet Ovans in 1901; their son Hugh Foss later became a cryptanalyst for Britain's Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park during World War II.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 07:44 (CET).