Edward King (1829-1910).

Among those commemorated this month, Bishop King of Lincoln is of particular interest as a Dearmerite before his time. At Oriel College, Oxford, he was converted to Tractarianism from his family's traditional conservative churchmanship, but as a staunch anti-Romanist, he found favour with 'Soapy Sam' Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford, who appointed him as chaplain and then principal of the theological college he had founded at Cuddesdon.

King combined moral weight and charisma with a sense of humour, which made him particularly effective in his ministry to young men and boys. Gladstone, who shared his churchmanship but not his politics, appointed him Professor of Pastoral Theology at Oxford, and in 1885 Bishop of Lincoln. Although he adhered strictly to the Prayer Book, King conformed to catholic ritual, with the result that the protestant Church Association prosecuted him in the Archbishop of Canterbury's court in 1890. The verdict was sufficiently favourable to King to provoke an appeal, which failed. King conscientiously dropped all the practices condemned by the Archbishop, though (as usual) most Anglo-Catholics took no notice.

Bishop King was not particularly intellectual nor very eloquent, but he had a rare gift of human sympathy and understanding which amounted, it was said, to genius. People all over England contributed to the cost of his huge memorial in Lincoln cathedral, with its fine life-size bronze statue by the painter-sculptor, W.B. Richmond.

Charles Plouviez