William Arthur Dunkerley

William Arthur Dunkerley was an English journalist, novelist, poet, publisher, and hymn writer born in Manchester on November 12, 1852. He wrote religious poetry and much of his fiction under the pen name John Oxenham, while using Julian Ross for some journalism. After spending a short period in the United States following his marriage, he settled with his family in Ealing, west London, where he served as a deacon and teacher at Ealing Congregational Church. In 1922 he moved to Worthing, Sussex, and later served as the town's mayor.

Dunkerley produced a large body of novels, journalism, devotional verse, and wartime poetry. Bees in Amber, published in 1913, became a major success. His best-known hymn text is In Christ There Is No East or West, which grew out of material written for the London Missionary Society's 1908 missionary pageant. 'Mid All the Traffic of the Ways appeared under the John Oxenham name in The Vision Splendid, published by George H. Doran Company in New York in 1917.

The prayerful inwardness of 'Mid All the Traffic differs from the missionary breadth of In Christ There Is No East or West, yet both show Dunkerley's characteristic use of direct devotional language. He died at Worthing on January 23, 1941.