Buckinghamshire, Eton College, Duke of Newcastle Medal, 1833, in gold, by W. Wyon, bust of Henry Pelham right, rev. legend in wreath, edge named (William Ralph Inge, 1878), 36mm, 31.08g (BHM 1646; MJP p.39). Usual light die flaw in field to left of bust, otherwise brilliant mint state, toned, rare (£300-350)

Provenance:
Sotheby Auction, 25-6 April 1996, lot 821
P. Preston-Morley Collection, DNW Auction 54, 19 June 2002, lot 626.

The Very Rev. William Ralph Inge, KCVO, FBA, DD (1860-1954), a King’s Scholar at Eton 1874-9; b. Crayke, Yorkshire, lived at Brightwell Manor, Wallingford; after Eton he went to King’s College, Cambridge, returning to Eton as an assistant master, 1884-8. He was a fellow and tutor at Hertford College, Oxford, from 1889 to 1904, vicar of All Saints’, London SW7, 1905-7 and dean of St Paul’s from 1911 until his retirement in 1934. Apart from his theological and philosophical writings, he was well known as ‘the gloomy dean’ from his controversial weekly articles on a wide range of social topics which appeared in the Evening Standard between 1921 and 1946. Further biographical details and a copy of his obituary from The Times, 27 February 1954, are sold with the lot