Page:The Cyclopedia of India (Specimen Issue).pdf/25

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THE RIGHT REV. WALTER RUTHVEN PYM, D.D., Lord Bishop of Bombay.


THE RIGHT REV. BISHOP PYM is the eldest surviving son of M. E. Alexander Pym, and was born in 185631 Great Che>terford in Essex. The T father of Bishop P\ m was a son of M«. and Laoy Jane Pym of the llassels( Bedfordshire), and his mother was daughter of Sir Albert and ihe Hon. Lady Pell. His Lord-ship received his early education at Bedford Schorl, and then became a member ol Magdalen College (Cam¬bridge), hum which he graduated B A m 1S79, and took his M-A. in 1 ^83. His lordship » first appoint¬ment was at Lyih mi, where he made the acquaintance of Miss Lucy Ann Threlfall to whom afierwntds he was married on the Sthof August 1883. He wasnext in charge at Miles Platting during the troubl ms time when the Rev. S. F. Greene was released front ihe Lancaster Gaol. This was succeeded by his appointment suc¬cessively as Vicar 0! Wentworth, us Domestic Chaplain to Euil Fitzwil- liam, as the Vicar of Slur row and Vicar of Rotherham from 1893 to 1S9S. On the 291 h of September 1898, Dr. Pym was conse¬crated Bishop of Mauritius in Westminster Abbey and shortly after sailed in a French steamer to Port Louis. The Island of Mauritius has a population of some -loo.ooo souls consisting most y of In¬dians with u remnant of old Ficnch Colonists and Creoles. Among the lang¬uages spoken there, Eng¬lish, French, Creole, Tamil, Urdu, Telegu and Mala qush, are the most pre valent. The Diocese includes the groups of Islands known as the Seychelles about 1.000 miles from Mauritius, and now a separate Colony. Prasliu, one of the group, was confidently believed by General Gordon to be the Garden of Eden. On taking charge of the Mauritius Diocese, Dr. I’yni immediately started consolidating all ecclesiastical operations in his new sphere In his capacity as the Bishop of the Island His Loidship energetically organised new work in the Diocese and sent a clergyman to ihe Island of Rodrigues, about 400 miles from the mainland, and also rai>td funds for a lady doctor to woik among the Indian women in Mauritius. before His Lordship came to India he had thrice visited Ceylon. Towards the end of 1903, he was appointed Bishop of Bombay and landed in ihe cluef city of his Diocese on February 51b, 1904. Immediately after Ins appointment to Bombay, Bishop Pym was offered the Mas'crsxip of Magdalen College, his old college, hut lie declined this some¬what tempting offer feeling himself pledged to the Diocese of Bombay, and th»t he intended to make this his sphere of work. At the beginning of August 1904, when the Bishop WHS on an Episcopal visit to the distri' ts of Ahmcd- nagar, he received a tele¬graphic message that Mrs. Pym, who was then in Poona, had fallen seriously ill with cholera ; His Lord- ship hurtieo to Pom si, but arrived an hour after his wife had died. Some time back, with a view to bring the various and isolated sections of ihe Bombay Diocese into active and harmonious co-operation, Dr. Pym inaugurated what is known as the “ Bombay Diocesan Church Society.” The membership of this new organisation numbers in itself many very influen¬tial persons both from the clergy and the laity, and the Association has been doing excellent work along the lines it has marked out for itself. With a view to strengthen the Indian Christian Church by furnishing it with efficient ministers, His Lordship bus established m Poona, under his own roof, a small “Training College for Indian Clergy." 'The Bish p and seve«al of the local clergy voluntarily give their services as instruct™?, the Principal being the Rev. Mr. L. M. Hnslope The labours of the Right Rev. Dr. Pym are not confined to the strictly defined sphere of