Robert William Radclyffe Dolling

Robert William Radclyffe Dolling (1851–1902), English divine, known as Father Dolling, was born at Magheralin, County Down, and educated at Harrow and Cambridge.

From 1878 to 1882 he was warden of one of the houses of the Postmens' League, started by Father Stanton of St. Alban's, Holborn. He was ordained in 1883 to a curacy Corscombe, Dorset, but resided in London as head of St. Martin's mission, Stepney.

In 1885 a difficulty as to the relation of his, mission to Holy Trinity parish, Stepney, led to his resignation, and he next accepted the charge of St. Agatha's, Landport, the Winchester College mission. The remarkable reforms he accomplished there may be ascertained from his "Ten Years in a Portsmouth Slum" (London 1896). In 1885 he again resigned owing to the refusal of Randall Davidson, Bishop of Winchester to sanction the extreme ritual used in the service at St. Agatha's ["Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury" Bell, GKA:London Oxford University Press 1935]

In 1897, Dolling visited the United States, where his preaching made a great impression. He returned to the UK in the following year as vicar of St. Saviour's, Poplar, and retained that living until his death.

An account of Dolling's person and missionary work among the poor is given in [http://anglicanhistory.org/england/dolling/osborne/ "The Life of Father Dolling" (London, 1903) by the Rev. C.E. Osborne] .

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