Fleming, Archibald Lang

First Bishop of the Arctic.

Archibald Lang Fleming was born in Greenock, Scotland in 1883, and attended Glasgow University. He married Elizabeth Lukens, and worked with J. Brown & Co. Ltd., shipbuilders in Clydebank,. In 1906, he travelled to Canada and attended Wycliffe College. He was ordained deacon in 1912, and served as a missionary to Baffin's Island until 1916. he was ordained priest in 1913. He worked for churches in Ontario and New Brunswick until 1918, when he became the Chaplain and the Financial Secretary of Wycliffe College. He received an L.th. there in 1919, and went to work as a rector in St. John, New Brunswick in 1921, where he stayed until 1927. He was an honourary captain and chaplain to the New Brunswick Heavy Brigade Artillery from 1924 to 1927, and published a book, The History of St. John's Church, Saint John, New Brunswick in 1925. In 1927, he was made the Archdeacon on the Arctic, until 1933, when he was consecrated Bishop of the Arctic. He was Examining Chaplain to the Bishops of Yukon, Moosonee, Keewatin and Mackenzie River, as well as Commissioner for Eskimo Work in the Dioceses of Yukon, Mackenzie River, Moosonee and Keewatin He was also made a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society in 1930, and was known as "the Flying Bishop" because he travelled by airplane throughout his diocese. He resigned the See in 1929, and passed away in 1953. His widow published his memoirs, Archibald the Arctic, in 1956.