author
Robert R. (Robert Radclyffe) Dolling
1851–1902
An Anglo-Catholic priest and social reformer remembered as “Father Dolling,” he wrote with the urgency of someone deeply involved in the struggles of ordinary city life. His work brings together faith, social concern, and a vivid sense of late Victorian England.
1 Audiobook
Ten years in a Portsmouth slum
by Robert R. (Robert Radclyffe) Dolling
About the author
Born in Magheralin, County Down, in 1851, Robert William Radclyffe Dolling was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. He became known as Father Dolling, an energetic Anglo-Catholic priest whose work centered on some of the poorest districts of London and Portsmouth.
Dolling earned a strong reputation for practical social work as well as preaching. Accounts of his life describe his commitment to people living in poverty and his willingness to work in places others avoided, which made him a notable religious and reforming figure in the late 19th century.
He also wrote books and essays shaped by that experience, giving his work a direct, personal quality. He died in 1902, but his life continued to attract attention afterward through biographies and historical writing about his ministry and influence.