Biography
William Edwin Sangster was born in London in 1900. Radnor Street Sunday School helped bring him into Methodism, and he entered ministerial training at Handsworth and Richmond. His early appointments included Liverpool, Scarborough, and Leeds before he moved to Westminster Central Hall in 1939.[1]
His London pastorate began as the Second World War opened. He lived at Central Hall during the war and remained close to people sheltering in its crypt. His ministry joined preaching with the immediate responsibilities of caring for a congregation and its neighbours during danger and loss.[1]
Sangster became President of the Methodist Conference in 1950 and later led the Home Mission Department. His books addressed Methodist renewal, holiness, and preaching; they included Methodism Can Be Born Again, The Path to Perfection, and The Art of the Sermon. Illness eventually forced his retirement, but he continued writing and encouraging prayer groups. He died on 24 May 1960.[1]
The surviving picture of Sangster depends substantially on published works, contemporary recollections, and the biography written by his son Paul. Andrew Cheatle's scholarly study notes the limits created by the destruction of Sangster's diaries. That limitation matters when later stories are presented as intimate knowledge of his inner life.[2]