Age of mystery for Archbishop of York The mystery centres on three forms filled in by hand and signed by Dr Sentamu in the past two decades. Two were completed in 1996 when he was appointed Bishop of Stepney, east London, to register the Ugandan-born cleric as a director of the London diocese's board of finance and the London Diocesan Fund. Originally, both forms appear to have stated Dr Sentamu's date of birth as June 10, 1947, but the 7 was changed to a 9, with the 9 repeated in the margin for clarity, before the documents were filed. A third form - Dr Sentamu's registration as a director of the Church's central board of finance - was filed at Companies House in 2005, after his appointment as Archbishop of York. On this document the date of birth is also written as June 10, 1947, but, this time, is uncorrected. Dr Sentamu's formal signature, Sentamu Ebor - taken from Eboracum, the Roman name for York - appears on the same page. The older version of Dr Sentamu's birth date also appears in press reports from the 1980s. One was an interview with Dr Sentamu when he became the first black clergyman to be elected to the General Synod, the Church's governing body. The article, published in 1988, states Dr Sentamu's age as 40. Inquiries in Uganda failed to provide an official record of Dr Sentamu's birth date. His registration document at Makerere University in Kampala states that he was born in 1949. A spokesman for the archbishop said the problem was caused by an administrative error made in 1979, when he submitted his biographical details to Crockford's, the official directory of Church clergy. The older date appeared on the Companies House documents because Dr Sentamu's basic details were filled out based on the information in Crockford's. It is unclear why the error was corrected on the first set of forms but not when it was repeated in 2005. The archbishop contacted Crockford's in 2007 to ask for the date to be corrected. The spokesman said: "The archbishop's correct date of birth is June 10, 1949 - this is clearly stated on his birth certificate and his marriage certificate. We will ensure any documents or listings that state differently are corrected. Dr Sentamu, a former judge, was an adviser to the Stephen Lawrence murder inquiry and chairman of the review into the murder of Damilola Taylor in 2002. The outspoken bishop had been the bookmakers" favourite to succeed Dr Williams but has since been overtaken by the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Rev Graham James, 61, and the Bishop of Coventry, the Rt Rev Christopher Cocksworth, 53. Last week the odds on the Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Justin Welby, 56, - a former executive in the oil industry - narrowed considerably after he was invited to sit on the parliamentary inquiry into the banking sector. Dr Sentamu signalled he wished to be in the running for Canterbury when he withdrew from the Church panel tasked with selecting the new archbishop - opening himself up to be formally considered. However, he has invited speculation that he feels his chances of being appointed are slim. Last month he informed parliamentary authorities that he had purchased a flat in Bethnal Green, east London, which he describes on the Lords register of interests as a "future retirement home."