The suicide of a fellow student at Oxford 33 years ago has been revealed as one of the defining moments in the life of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.
A new biography describes how Hilary Watson fell secretly in love with the charismatic and deeply spiritual 24-year-old doctoral student while he was counselling her in the 1970s.
According to the book….the young theologian was unaware of how his well-intentioned support had resulted in emotional turmoil for a woman four years his senior. He was the last person to see Miss Watson before she took an overdose of sleeping pills. She then called a mutual friend and asked her to “tell Rowan that it’s not his fault”.