William Ayerst

William Ayerst (1830–1904) was an English clergyman and missionary. The eldest son of William Ayerst, vicar of Egerton, Kent, he studied at King's College, London from 1847–9, and graduated from the Caius College, Cambridge with a B.A. in 1853, and an M.A. in 1856. After being ordained as a deacon in 1853, he was subsequently appointed to All Saints, Gordon Square (1853–5), St. Paul's, Lisson Grove (1855–7), and St Giles in the Fields (1857–9), before departing England to serve a rector of St. Paul's School, Calcutta, India. He was later senior chaplain with the Khyber field force from 1879 to 1881, for which he was honoured with the Afghan medal. After returning to England he was briefly a principal of the Jews' Episcopal Chapel, Cambridge Heath, before being appointed vicar of Hungarton in 1882. In 1884 he opened a hostel, Ayerst Hall, in Cambridge to assist poorer men with their education, and was curate of Newton, Cambridgeshire, from 1888 to 1890.