Inge, William Ralph

William Ralph Inge was known to the public as 'The Gloomy Dean' for the sharp cultural criticism of his columns in the Evening Standard. He was a passionate Christian Platonist known in the academy for his work on mysticism, Plotinus and a synthesis of Christianity and Platonism. William Ralph Inge was born 6 June 1860 in Crayke, Yorkshire, England, into a family of clerics. His father was an Anglican curate and provost of Worcester College, Oxford, while his mother's father was the Archdeacon of Cleveland. After education at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, Inge returned to his alma mater