 The office of Chancellor is now held by one of the companions of the order . For most of its existence , the Bishop of Salisbury has held the office , although laymen held it from 1553 to 1671 . In 1837 , after boundary changes made Windsor Castle fall in the diocese of Oxford , the Chancellorship was transferred to the Bishop of Oxford . A century later , the Bishop of Salisbury challenged this transfer , on the grounds that the Chancellorship had been attached to his office regardless of the diocese in which the chapel of the order lay ; and that , in any event , St George 's Chapel , as a Royal Peculiar , was not under diocesan jurisdiction . The office of Chancellor was removed from the Bishop of Oxford ( the outgoing bishop , Thomas Banks Strong , had been outspoken in the abdication crisis of Edward VIII ) , and so it was withheld from his successor , Kenneth Kirk , and has since been held by one of the Knights Companion . Since 1937 , the following members have held the post of Chancellor : 
