Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Wigram, Woolmore
WIGRAM, WOOLMORE (1831–1907), campanologist, the fifth son of ten children of Money Wigram (1790–1873), director of the Bank of England, of Manor Place, Much Hadham, Hertfordshire, and Mary, daughter of Charles Hampden Turner, of Rooks Nest, Godstone, Surrey, was born on 29 Oct. 1831 at Devonshire Place, London. His father was elder brother of Sir James Wigram [q. v.], of Joseph Cotton Wigram [q. v.], and of George Vicesimus Wigram [q. v.]. Of his brothers, Charles Hampden (1826–1903) was knighted in 1902, and Clifford (1828–1898) was director of the bank of England. Wigram entered Rugby school in August 1844, and matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1850, graduating B.A. in 1854 and proceeding M.A. in 1858. Among his intimate friends at Cambridge was John Gott, afterwards bishop of Truro [q. v. Suppl. II]. Taking holy orders in 1855, he was curate of Hampstead (1855–64), vicar of Brent Pelham with Furneaux Pelham, Hertfordshire (1864–76), and rector of St. Andrew's with St. Nicholas and St. Mary's, Hertford (1876–97). From 1877 to 1897 he was rural dean of Hertford, and in 1886 was made hon. canon of St. Albans, where he lived from 1898 till his death, and was an active member of the chapter. A high churchman, Wigram was long a member of the English Church Union.
Wigram was an enthusiastic campanologist, and became an authority on the subject. A series of articles in ‘Church Bells’ were published collectively in 1871 under the title of ‘Change-ringing Disentangled and Management of Towers’ (2nd edit. 1880).
In his earlier days Wigram was an enthusiastic Alpine climber. He was a member of the Alpine Club from 1858 to 1868. His most memorable feat was the first successful ascent, in the company of Thomas Stewart Kennedy (with Jean Baptiste Croz and Josef Marie Krönig as guides), of La Dent Blanche on 18 July 1862 (see his own account in Memoirs, 1908, pp. 81–95; T. S. Kennedy in Alpine Journal, 1864, i. 33–9: cf. Whymper's Scrambles amongst the Alps, chap. xiv.).
Wigram died from the effects of influenza at his residence in Watling Street, St. Albans, on 19 Jan. 1907, and was buried in St. Stephen's churchyard there. He married on 23 July 1863 Harriet Mary, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Ainger of Hampstead, and had issue four sons and three daughters.
[The Times, 22 Jan. 1907; Memoirs of Woolmore Wigram, 1831–1907, by his wife (with portrait), 1908.]