Edward Sugden (methodist)

Edward Holdsworth Sugden (19 June 1854 – 22 July 1935) was the first master of Queen's College (University of Melbourne). He was, in partnership with the Methodist Church, responsible for laying down the foundings of the college including the Sugden Principle.

Sugden was born in Ecclesfield, near Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. He was the eldest son of Rev. James Sugden, a minister of the Wesleyan Methodist Church and his wife Sarah, née Holdsworth.

Sugden was educated at the boarding school Woodhouse Grove School, and in 1870 passed the London matriculation examination, gaining first place on the list, which entitled him to the Gilchrist scholarship of fifty pounds a year for three years at Owens College, Manchester. There he studied, among other things, Greek testament textual criticism, Hebrew, and English poetry. Sugden was always grateful to his school for having taught him to sing by note, and at Manchester he studied harmony and counterpoint under (Sir) John Frederick Bridge, afterwards known as "Westminster Bridge", then organist at Manchester Cathedral.

Sugden took his degree with honours in classics at University of London in 1873, and a year later was accepted for the Methodist ministry and appointed assistant tutor at Headingley theological college, Leeds. While in this position he took the degree of B.Sc. (1876) He was seven years at Headingley college, was then appointed a junior circuit minister, and spent six successful years at this work. Sugden continued his interest in music and became a member of the Leeds Festival Chorus, and he also did some experimental work in psychical research and particularly in thought reading. Sugden married Mary Florence, née Brooke, at Stockport, Cheshire, England, on 22 August 1878; Mary died in childbirth in 1883.On 27 October 1886 Sugden married Ruth Hannah Thompson (d. 1932) at Bradford, Yorkshire, England; Sugden later described her as"my incomparable helpmate in every part of my work".

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