Vincent Stuckey Stratton Coles

Vincent Stuckey Stratton Coles was an English Church of England priest, devotional writer, and hymn writer associated with the Anglo-Catholic life of late Victorian and early twentieth-century Anglicanism. Born at Shepton Beauchamp, Somerset, on March 27, 1845, he studied at Balliol College, Oxford, graduating B.A. in 1868 and M.A. in 1872. He was ordained in 1869 and served first as a curate at Wantage before becoming rector of his native Shepton Beauchamp in 1872.

Coles became one of the founding priest-librarians of Pusey House, Oxford, and served as its principal from 1897 to 1909. Pusey House had been established to preserve and extend the theological and pastoral legacy associated with Edward Bouverie Pusey and the Oxford Movement. Coles later served the Community of the Epiphany at Truro and became an honorary canon of Christ Church, Oxford.

His hymns include "We Pray Thee, Heavenly Father," "O Shepherd of the Sheep," and "Lord, in Whose Eternal Counsels." His writing characteristically reflects sacramental devotion, the church year, and the communion of saints. He died on June 9, 1929, after a ministry that joined parish work, Oxford pastoral leadership, devotional writing, and hymnody.