Book tells of Rowan Williams’s suicide girl

A new biography of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams (pictured), reveals the guilt he continues to feel over the suicide of a woman who fell in love with him while they were students at Oxford University in the 1970s. The death of Hilary Watson is said to have been the defining moment in Williams's life, not least because the coroner at her funeral asked a number of critical questions about his relationship with her, especially why he had set himself up as a source of "spiritual counsel" without any formal training.

According to the book, Rowan's Rule: The Biography of the Archbishop by Rupert Shortt, the young theologian was unaware of how his well-intentioned support had resulted in emotional turmoil for Watson, who was four years his senior. The book also reveals that Williams was the last person she saw before taking an overdose of whiskey and barbituates in April 1975 when Williams was 24 years old.

Watson, known as Lori, had become depressed because of a chronic lung illness and the pressure of her studies. She sought help from Dr Williams. While Dr Williams was exonerated of any responsibility by the coroner, he reveals in the book that Watson's family blamed him at the time and that he thought they still did.

Pam Lunn, a friend of Watson, recalled that the coroner asked Dr Williams a series of questions implying that he had set himself up as a counsellor without appropriate training. "He was deeply uncomfortable about this," said Lunn. "The coroner asked him if he had any idea whether Lori's suicide could have been anticipated. Rowan answered sharply with a counter-question: 'Do you think I'd have left her on her own if I'd suspected what might happen?'."

According to the book, which is being serialised in the Times, it was a lesson in the importance of distinguishing friendship from pastoral work for Williams. Adds Lunn: "It was not formal counselling and that may have been one of the difficulties. [Lori] got herself into deeper waters than were sensible for a situation that did not have the boundaries of formal counselling. She was a distressed young woman. She was pouring out her emotions as if it were a therapeutic situation when it wasn't. She probably fell in love with Rowan."