Tom Bond Bishop

Born: 1839.

Died: 1920.

Tom Bond Bishop was a farm boy from near Aldershot, west of London. Apart from two years of formal schooling as a child, he was entirely self-educated and successfully managed the family farm for several years after his father's death in 1854. Once the family debts were paid, he became a clerk at a custom house in London, a job he apparently held for many years. After his mother's and sister's deaths, Bishop married Sarah Caroline Dawson in October 1897.

He was Crowley's uncle, the brother of his mother, Emily Crowley. He had moved to London around the time his own father had died of natural causes in 1854. He worked in the civil service as a customs clerk, advancing to a lucrative position. Known in philanthropic circles as an evangelical Christian, “T. B. B.” founded the Children’s Special Service Mission in 1867, which quickly grew to include the Children’s Scripture Union and Our Own Magazine, a one-penny monthly magazine of inspirational stories for children that he edited for many years. He was also a founding member of Civil Service Prayer Union, serving on its committee from July 1881 until he resigned in 1889 from “over work.” He was every bit as devoted to God as Crowley's father Edward Crowley. However, while Edward’s devotion garnered Aleister's respect, Uncle Tom’s earned nothing but scorn. A rigid and devout man, he represented all that Crowley came to hate about religion, and he remembered his uncle bitterly. “No more cruel fanatic, no meaner villain, ever walked this earth,” he wrote in his memoirs. He attributed White Stains, his decadent book of erotic verse, to a fictional character bearing Tom’s family name. In later years, Crowley published his uncle’s obituary prematurely, and verbally attacked him while reviewing his book Evolution Criticised.

Tom Bond Bishop

and His Wife