Walter Ruthven Pym (22 June 1856 – 2 March 1908) was an English colonial bishop at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.

Biography

Walter Pym was born in Great Chesterford in 1856. The son of Alexander Pym and Eliza Elizabeth Pell, he was educated at

Bedford School Bedford School is a 7–18 Single-sex education, boys Public school (United Kingdom), public school in the county town of Bedford in England. Founded in 1552, it is the oldest of four independent schools in Bedford run by the Harpur Trust. Bed ...

and

Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...

Ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

in 1881, after a curacy in

Lytham Lytham St Annes () is a seaside town in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is on the The Fylde, Fylde coast, directly south of Blackpool on the Ribble Estuary. The population of the built-up area at the 2021 United Kingdom census, ...

he was successively

Vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...

of Miles Platting, Wentworth and

Sharrow Sharrow is a suburb of Sheffield located directly southwest of Sheffield city centre. The district lies within the Nether Edge and Sharrow ward of the city. The inner city area of Sharrow situated around London Road is distinct from the m ...

before being appointed

Rural Dean In the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion as well as some Lutheran denominations, a rural dean is a member of clergy who presides over a "rural deanery" (often referred to as a deanery); "ruridecanal" is the corresponding adjective ...

Rotherham Rotherham ( ) is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies at the confluence of the River Rother, South Yorkshire, River Rother, from which the town gets its name, and the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don. It is the largest settlement ...

. In 1898 he was appointed Bishop of Mauritius, and then was translated in 1903 to Bombay. Although he had had a reputation as a "vigorous and moderate evangelistic style," his attempts to suppress more Catholic expressions of piety led to controversy and dissent. He married Lucy Anne Threlfall, daughter of Thomas Threlfall, on 8 August 1883. Their daughter Lucy Barbara Pym MBE (1895–1979) married Sir Edward Ruggles-Brise, 1st Baronet. Their eldest son, Leslie Ruthven Pym (1884–1945), was Conservative MP for Monmouth from 1939–1945, and his son,

Francis Pym Francis Leslie Pym, Baron Pym, (13 February 1922 – 7 March 2008) was a British Conservative Party politician who served in various Cabinet positions in the 1970s and 1980s, including Foreign, Defence and Northern Ireland Secretary, and ...

(1922–2008) was a Conservative MP from 1961–1987 and a cabinet minister. Their second son, Revd Canon Thomas Wentworth Pym DSO (1885–1945), was

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

Theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...

.Obituary, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 21 July 1945, p.6 Walter Pym died in 1908.

References

1856 births People educated at Bedford School Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge Anglican bishops of Mauritius Anglican bishops of Bombay 1908 deaths British Mauritius people {{Anglican-bishop-stub