The Right Reverend Sarah Mullally is the first female to be appointed the church's third most senior role.

The former Chief Nursing Officer, who spent 35 years working in the NHS, will succeed Richard Chartres and become the 133rd person to hold the role.

She will be junior only to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York.

Mrs Mullally, 55, who is married with two children, said: "It is a great honour to be nominated.

Having lived and worked in London for over 32 years, the thought of returning here is about returning home.

"I am often asked what it has been like to have had two careers, first in the NHS and now in the Church.

"I prefer to think that I have always had one vocation - to follow Jesus Christ, to know him and to make him known, always seeking to live with compassion in the service of others, whether as a nurse, a priest, or a bishop."

Mrs Mullally was the former Chief Nursing Officer for England, the youngest person to be appointed to that post, before she was ordained in 2001.

She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 2005 for her outstanding contribution to nursing and midwifery.

And in 2012 she was appointed as Canon Treasurer at Salisbury Cathedral, before becoming Bishop of Crediton, Devon, in the Diocese of Exeter in 2015.

The Church of England allowed women to become priests in 1994 but only consecrated its first female bishop - Bishop of Stockport Libby Lane - in 2015.

Mrs Mullally, whose appointment was approved by the Queen, will begin her role in the New Year.

The Rt Rev Robert Atwell, Bishop of Exeter, said: "I am delighted for Bishop Sarah and for London, though I am desperately sorry to lose her.

"During her two years in Devon, Sarah has made a huge impact on churches and communities, and transformed so much of the way the Diocese works."

Her new diocese covers 277 square miles of Greater London north of the Thames from Staines in the west to the Isle of Dogs in the east and as far north as Enfield.