The Rev. Prebendary H.F.B. Mackay
Robert Dolling was born in County Down and educated at Harrow and Cambridge.
At the age of twenty-seven he made his home in London, and through the influence of Father Stanton and Alexander Mackonochie, whom he had met at Cambridge, he became Warden of the South London Branch of the St. Martin's Postman's League. Here he became known as 'Brother Bob' - a nickname that stuck to him all his life.
He was ordained in 1883, and for two years did fine work in Stepney. But it is as Vicar of the Winchester College Mission of St. Agatha's, Landport, that he is best remembered. For ten years he fought the evils of slum life, and rebuilt St. Agatha's. You would meet at his table an admiral, a peer, and three or four down-and-outs. He would show you the cutlasses he had taken from seamen in their cups, and it was said that he had the power to reclaim anyone.
His 'Ten Years in a Portsmouth Slum' gives an account of his life and experiences there - the most successful period of his life, although he did much good work for the poor in Poplar, where he went in 1898 and where he stayed until his health failed three years later.