As a charity we mourn the recent loss of our patron, Bishop Andrew Watson, Bishop of Guildford Diocese, who died on 3rd March 2026 and whose funeral was held on Monday 23rd March at Guildford Cathedral.
Bishop Andrew was the much loved patron of our charity, for which he was an inspirational and faithful supporter. He agreed to become our patron shortly after WATSAN Uganda became a charity in 2007, and came on the first Walk for Water with his daughter, Lydia, in 2011.
In 2014 Bishop Andrew paid a visit to Uganda, with trustees Ian and Ellie Bensted and Graham Piper, to meet the NKKD WATSAN team and the bishops of both North Kigezi and Kinkiizi Dioceses and see the projects first hand. In 2022 he kindly hosted a tea party at his home, Willow Grange, for WATSAN’s supporters, to celebrate our 18th birthday. There he commented: “I visited the project in 2014 and what really impressed me was the fact that as much energy goes into making sure the community owns the projects as into the engineering side of things. It’s not something I had considered before and really makes WATSAN’s work unique.”
WATSAN’s founders Ian and Ellie Bensted attended Bishop Andrew’s funeral on 23rd March, alongside a large congregation of 1,000 people, where there were tributes and sermons from clergy including the Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mulally, and Andrew’s children. His son Joseph gave a rapid-fire account of Andrew the family man, photographer and musician, whose musical talents were quietly prodigious, for example playing the piano in jazzy style with his hands behind his back, and described how his Dad spent many hours of his last few days sitting in the garden reading the many hundreds of cards sent to him, and, near the end, listening to the birds.
Bishop Pete Wilcox, in his sermon, selected verses from 2 Cor. 4, vs. 14 and 15, the latter to characterise Andrew’s life, the former his death. These verses featured in one of two remarkable letters which Andrew sent to his Diocese during the last few weeks of his life, described by a fellow Bishop as, “possibly the most beautiful things I have ever read”. He wrote for example, “I don’t fear the prospect of dying and find to my relief that my faith in the ‘resurrection of the body and the life everlasting’ has only grown stronger over the past few weeks”.
Bishop Onesimus, the current Bishop of North Kigezi Diocese, has written a tribute to Bishop Andrew on behalf of the North Kigezi and Kinkiizi, Dioceses (NKKD) WATSAN Programme, which can be read here.
Bishop Andrew will be sorely missed by all of the WATSAN team in the UK and in Uganda.
WATSAN Uganda 