Coles, Vincent Stuckey Stratton

(1845-1929)

   The son of the Rev. James Stratton Coles, rector of Shepton Beauchamp, Somerset, he was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford, then took Holy Orders in 1869 to become curate of Wantage, near Oxford. He succeeded his father as rector of Shepton Beauchamp (where he is buried) in 1872, but resigned in 1884 to become one of the librarians of Pusey House, Oxford, and was principal from 1897 until 1909, when he resigned from ill health (Pusey House is the center of Catholic worship, teaching and practice and a place of scholarship and learning in the University of Oxford and for the wider Church). From 1910 to 1920 he was warden of the community of the Epiphany at Truro. His major publications: Pastoral Work in Country Districts, 1906 (being lectures delivered at Cambridge in Lent 1905). Lenten Meditations, 1899 (4th ed. 1905). Advent Meditations, 1899 (new edition 1901). Some of his hymns (a few of them are in the current Hymns Ancient and Modern): "Almighty Father, Lord Most High," "Lamb of God, Whose Love Divine," "Shepherd of the Sheep," "We Pray Thee, Heavenly Father."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition, 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. The Cyber Hymnal (http://www.cyberhymnal.org/index.htm).