Ernest Barnes

English mathematician and clergyman

Ernest William Barnes FRS (1 April 1874 – 29 November 1953) was a British mathematician and scientist who later became a liberal theologian and bishop.

He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, and Trinity College, Cambridge.He was Master of the Temple from 1915 to 1919.

He was made Bishop of Birmingham in 1924, the only bishop appointed during Ramsay MacDonald's first term in office.His modernist views, in particular objection to Reservation, led to conflict with the Anglo-Catholics in his diocese.

A biography by his son, Sir John Barnes, Ahead of His Age: Bishop Barnes of Birmingham, was published in 1979.