Joost de Blank, born in Rotterdam of Dutch parents, was educated in England. He was ordained in 1932, and served as an Army chaplain 1939 to 1944. From 1948 to 1952 he was an Assistant General Secretary to the Student Christian Movement, before becoming Vicar of St. John the Baptist, Greenhill, Harrow. In 1952 he was created Bishop of Stepney. He succeeded Archbishop Clayton in Cape Town in 1957. In South Africa, he re refused to preach in any church not open to blacks as well as whites; and he opposed clause 29 of the Natives Law Amendment Bill, which gave the civil authorities powers to exclude non-whites from Anglican churches. In 1960 De Blank called on the Dutch Reformed Church to repudiate apartheid, and also he criticised the South African jubilee celebrations: `This is no' time for rejoicing, but for shame'. Ill health forced him to resign from Cape Town in 1963; he was appointed a Canon of Westminster Abbey. In 1966 illness prevented him from taking up a new appointment as Bishop of Hong Kong. He died in 1968.
From the guide to the The Right Reverend Joost De Blank; papers, diaries, correspondence, sermons etc. (some microfilm), 1941-1968, (York University, Borthwick Institute of Historical Research)
