Arthur F. Winnington Ingram

Arthur Foley Winnington-Ingram (26 January 1858 – 26 May 1946) was Bishop of London from 1901 to 1939.

Early life and career

He was born in the rectory at Stanford-on-Teme, Worcestershire, the fourth son of Edward Winnington-Ingram (a Church of England priest and Rector of Stanford) and of Louisa (daughter of Henry Pepys, Bishop of Worcester). Winnington-Ingram was educated at Marlborough College and Keble College, Oxford; he graduated with second-class honours in Literae Humaniores ('Greats') in 1881. His younger brother Edward and his nephew (Edward's son) Arthur were both priests who became Archdeacons of Hereford. Another nephew of his was Reginald Pepys Winnington-Ingram, a scholar of Greek tragedy and Professor of Greek at King's College, London.

He was a private tutor in Europe, 1881–84; curate at St Mary's, Shrewsbury, 1884–85; private chaplain to the Bishop of Lichfield, 1885–89; head of Oxford House Settlement, Bethnal Green 1889–97, chaplain to the Archbishop of York, 1889; rector of St Matthew's, Bethnal Green, 1895; rural dean of Spitalfields, 1896; and canon of St Paul's Cathedral, 1897.

Episcopal career

In 1897, Winnington-Ingram was raised to the episcopate as the second suffragan Bishop of Stepney. In 1901, after the death of Mandell Creighton, he was nominated to the See of London, and he was in the same year appointed as a Privy Counsellor. As a preacher he proved very successful. He was a leader in social work in London's East End. As an administrator he has been judged inefficient in maintaining standards among the clergy in comparison with his disciplinarian-minded successor Geoffrey Fisher, a feature aggravated by his lengthy tenure.