Page:Distinguished Churchmen.djvu/379

Rh Dr John Cox Edghill, whose retirement from the Chaplain-Generalship has just taken place in consequence of the age limit prevailing in all departments of the State, has attracted to himself hosts of friends both in and out of the Service, and after seventeen years tenure of the office—and a much longer connection with the Army as Chaplain—he enjoys a reputation for broadness of mind and conspicuous fairness in his dealings with High and Low, Broad and Moderate Churchmen. He is another of the notable men given to the world by King's College, London, of which he was a Fellow. In 1858—he was born in 1835—having been ordained by Archbishop Tait, of London, he derived East-End experience through his curacy of St Mark's, Whitechapel. There he laboured for three years. His health, however, was not then equal to the strain, and the offer of work with the troops at Aldershot, with the probability of spells abroad, was accepted as a timely blessing. In the Army Mr Edghill may be said to have found his heart's desire—scope for plenty of work in healthy open surroundings, constant opportunities for intercourse with fellow-men discharging responsible duties in life, and a crying need for the reforming spirit which he—perhaps unconsciously—possessed. One of his first endeavours was by instrumental aid to infuse heartiness into the singing at the camp services. It is said that Mr Gleig, the then Chaplain-General, was particularly