John Edwin Watts-Ditchfield (17 September 1861 – 14 July 1923)[1] was an eminent 20th century Anglican priest and distinguished author.
A gifted fund-raiser, he provided a medical service and a parish centre among other facilities for his poor parishioners.
He was first considered for a bishopric when Lichfield became vacant in 1913, but he was not recommended by the Archbishop of Canterbury who wrote ‘Watts-Ditchfield with all his gifts is on a distinctly low plane.
[9] He was a vocal supporter of British involvement in the Great War but provoked controversy by permitting a woman to preach in a church, which at that time was frowned upon,[10] and by emphasising ‘our own sins’ such as intemperance, class divisions, housing deficiencies.
At a time when the unity of the nation was essential in the middle of a war, whatever the merits of Watts-Ditchfield's convictions, they seemed inappropriate, and were denounced as a ‘Flood of nonsense’.