Rev Anthony CarrThe Very Revd Canon Anthony Carr OSL

Anthony Carr entered general nurse training at Selly Oak Hospital Birmingham in 1951 when 18 years old. He subsequently became a Queen's District Nurse.

He held a variety of posts including working with the Royal College of Nursing before being appointed Chief Nursing Officer of a group of nine hospitals in Central Wirral Cheshire. He then became Chief Nursing Officer of the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (Teaching) Health Authority for 12 years which then consisted of 17 hospitals, including three medical teaching hospitals and the community nursing services in the City of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. He was head of the the largest nurse training school in the UK. Anthony introduced many innovations into nursing and nurse education.

In 1975 he became chairman of a working party at the Department of Health on the Education and Training of SRN/RGN in District Nursing. He later chaired a working party on the Enrolled Nurse in the Community. Action on the former report resulted in district nurse training being moved to colleges of further and higher education and paved the way for the present degree in district nursing. For this work he was honoured by the Royal College of Nursing by the award of Fellowship of the College (1984).

He was one of four members of a committee (Cumberledge) set up by the Secretary of State for Health in 1985 to review the Community Nursing Services in England. The subsequent report Neighbourhood Nursing had a great impact upon the management of the community nursing services.

In addition he served on the Council of the RCN at varying periods over sixteen years and was an elected member of the first English National Board and UKCC Joint Committee for District Nursing, member of the Panel of Assessors for District Nursing and chairman of its education committee. He was also a member of the council of the Queen’s Nursing Institute and vice-chairman of its education committee. 

For a considerable period he was consulting editor of Senior Nurse and on the board of the Nursing Mirror. He has had published about 100 papers in nursing journals.

Management consultancy

At 52 years, through illness, he retired from the NHS and became a management consultant under the name AJC Consultants. He still kept in contact with the NHS becoming a non-executive director of Solihull Primary Care NHS Trust in 1997 and vice chairman of the Trust from 1998 to 2003. At present he is an Associate Hospital Manager under the Mental Health Act (as amended 2008) reviewing patients detained under that act and is a director of Servol Community Trust which provides accommodation in London and Birmingham for persons of a West Indian and Caribbean background suffering from mental illness.

Ordained Minister

Anthony was ordained as a Christian minister in 1995 and held ministerial credentials of the Free Methodist Church. In April 2009 he was ordained into the Anglican and Celtic order of the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches. Subsequently he was appointed to the position of Arch Presbyter of Wren’s Cathedral, Wroxall Abbey Warwickshire and made Canon to the Ordinary in the Anglican Order of St. Leonard which has its roots going back to 1141AD. He has, during this time, obtained the degrees of Bachelor of Theology, Master of Religious Arts and Doctor of Sacred Literature. He is also a team minister of the Free Methodist Church, Renewal Christian Centre Solihull.

Finally, he contributes regularly to the Letters page of The Times.