Edward Cridge

Edward Cridge (December 17, 1817 – May 5, 1913) was a British-Canadian clergyman and social reformer. Born and raised in England and ordained in the Church of England, Cridge—a low church evangelical Anglican—disagreed with the then-ascendant high church movement in Anglicanism. Offered a new opportunity, he and his wife, Mary, migrated to the then-frontier outpost of Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island in 1855, where he was appointed to lead the congregation that eventually became known as Christ Church Cathedral. He also became a prominent advocate for the poor and underprivileged in the fast-growing city of Victoria. Cridge was the first superintendent of schools on Vancouver Island, and alongside Mary he was responsible for the creation of many of Victoria's nonprofit institutions. Among these organizations were the Protestant Orphans' Home (later renamed the Cridge Center for the Family, British Columbia's oldest continuously operating nonprofit organization) and the Royal Jubilee Hospital.

As an Anglican clergyman, Cridge was the first dean of the Diocese of British Columbia until 1874, when Bishop George Hills suspended his ministry in the Anglican church due to Cridge's vocal disagreement with Hills' views of ritualism. After his suspension and departure from the Anglican church, Cridge founded the Church of Our Lord in Victoria, after which became the first Canadian bishop of the newly formed Reformed Episcopal Church. Cridge was the rector of the Church of Our Lord until 1895 and remained active in Victoria's religious and civic affairs until his death in 1913.