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Robert William Radclyffe Dolling

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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ROBERT WILLIAM RADCLYFFE DOLLING (1851-1902), English divine, known as Father Dolling, was born at Magheralin, Co. Down, and educated at Harrow and Cambridge. From 1878 to 1882 he was warden of one of the houses of the Postmen's League, started by Father Stanton of St Alban's, Holborn. He was ordained in 1883 to a curacy at 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 bishop of Winchester's refusal to sanction the extreme ritual used in the service at St Agatha's. In 1897 he visited America, where his preaching made a great impression. He returned to England 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 The Life of Father Dolling (London, 1903), by the Rev. C. E. Osborne.