Russell Berridge White was the inaugural Bishop of Tonbridge from 1959 to 1968. Born on 13 December 1896 he was educated at the City of Oxford School and (after wartime service with the Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars) St Edmund Hall, Oxford. After this he studied for ordination at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford followed by a curacy at St Philemon, Toxteth. He was made deacon at Michaelmas 1923 (23 September) by Francis Chavasse, Bishop of Liverpool, and ordained priest the Michaelmas following (28 September 1924) by Albert David, Bishop of Liverpool – both times at Liverpool Cathedral. Between 1929 and 1933 he was Vicar of St Chrysostom, Everton and then until 1937 he was Chaplain to the Mercers' Company and Secretary of the Evangelical Churchmens Ordination Council, with an office in St Mary Wool