Topic: George Carey

George Leonard Carey, Baron Carey of Clifton PC FKC (born 13 November 1935) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002. He was the first modern holder not to have attended Oxford or Cambridge University. His time as archbishop saw the Church of England allow the ordination of women priests and a rising debate over attitudes to homosexuality at the Lambeth Conference of 1998.

George Carey was born in the East End of London in England. He attended Bonham Road Primary School in Dagenham, then he failed his eleven plus.:14 He then attended Bifrons Secondary Modern School in Barking, before leaving at the age of 15. He worked for the London Electricity Board as an office boy, before doing his National Service at 18 in the RAF as a Wireless Operator, during which time he served in Iraq.:32

He became a Christian at 17, when he attended church with his friends: "I had a conversion experience which was very real... There were no blinding lights, simply a quiet conviction I had found something," he later said.