Charles Kingsley Biography

Charles Kinsley was an English priest of the Church of English who was also a university professor, novelist, historian and amateur naturalist associated with the West Country and northeast Hampshire. Upon his graduation from Magdalene College, he chose to pursue a ministry in the church. In 1860, he was appointed as Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge. Later on he went on to become a canon of Chester Cathedral where he founded the Chester Society for Natural Science, Literature and Art. This society was the major inspiration behind the establishment of the Grosvenor Museum. He was interested in the concept of evolution and was open in his praise of Charles Darwin’s book “On the Origin of Species”, a book which otherwise generated much controversy among the religious groups. He was genuinely concerned with the reformation of society, and was a supporter of Chartism, a working class movement in Britain campaigning for political reforms. He formed the Christian Socialist movement along with Frederick Denison Maurice and Thomas Hughes in order to discuss how the Church could help in tackling the genuine grievances of the working class. Social reformation was also a recurrent theme in many of his novels. In addition to novels, he also wrote poetry, political articles and several volumes of sermons.