(Ernest Urban) Trevor Huddleston was born in Bedford, England, on the 15 June 1913. He was the only son of Captain Sir Ernest Whiteside Huddleston (1874–1959), naval officer with the Royal Indian Marine, and his first wife, Elsie (died 1931).

Huddleston was educated at Lancing College, Christ Church, Oxford and Wells Theological College. In 1936 he became a curate in the parish of St. Mark's, Swindon, and in the same year was ordained deacon. He was made a priest in 1937 and two years later (1939) joined the Anglican Community of the Resurrection based at Mirfield, Yorkshire.

Huddleston had hoped to serve as an army chaplain but, in 1943, the Superior of the Community of the Resurrection sent him to the diocese of Johannesburg in South Africa as Priest-in-Charge of the Community’s Sophiatown and Orlando Anglican Missions. In 1949 Huddleston was appointed Provincial of the Community of the Resurrection in South Africa and Superintendent of St. Peter's School (the church school).

In South Africa Huddleston became active in the struggle against apartheid. He campaigned against the forced removal of the black community from Sophiatown and decided to close St. Peter’s School rather than hand it over to government control following the passing of the Bantu Education Act. In 1955 Huddleston completed Naught For Your Comfort (published 1956) which described the impact of apartheid on the African people. In the same year he was recalled to England by the Community of the Resurrection.

Between 1956 and 1960 Huddleston was Guardian of the Novices at the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield (1956-8) and then Prior of the London House of the Community (1958-60). It was whilst in London that he addressed the founding meeting of the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) in June 1959. In 1960 Huddleston returned to Africa when he was appointed Bishop of Masasi in Tanganyika. He was transferred back to England in 1968 to serve as Suffragan Bishop of Stepney in London. The following year he was elected Vice-President of the AAM. In 1978 Huddleston was appointed Bishop of Mauritius and, shortly later, Archbishop of the Indian Ocean. In 1981 he was elected President of the AAM. He retired to England two years later (1983).

Although retired, Huddleston continued to support many organisations and groups. This included serving as President of the AAM (1981-94), Chairman of the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa (1983-98), President of the National Peace Council (1983-98), Provost of Selly Oak Colleges (1983-98) and President of the International Voluntary Service (1984-98).

In 1995 Huddleston returned to South Africa where he intended to live permanently. However, he left after only a few months and returned to England where he settled at the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield. In March 1998 Huddleston received the KCMG (Knight Commander, Order of St. Michael and St. George), for services to UK-South African Relations, and chose the designation ‘Bishop Trevor of Sophiatown’. He died at Mirfield the following month on the 20 April 1998. A memorial service was held on the 29 July at Westminster Abbey. On the 30 January 2000, Huddleston's ashes were interred in the church of Christ the King in Sophiatown.

This biographical history was compiled with reference to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.