Frederick Donald Coggan, Baron Coggan, (9 October 1909 – 17 May 2000) was the 101st Archbishop of Canterbury from 1974 to 1980. As Archbishop of Canterbury, he "revived morale within the Church of England, opened a dialogue with Rome and supported women's ordination". He had previously been successively the Bishop of Bradford and the Archbishop of York.
Donald Coggan (he dropped the name Frederick) was born on 9 October 1909 at 32 Croftdown Road, Highgate, Middlesex, the youngest child of Cornish Arthur Coggan, at one time national president of the Federation of Meat Traders and mayor of St Pancras, London, and his wife, Fanny Sarah Chubb.
Cornish Arthur Coggan "seems to have taken little interest in his family". Therefore, their three children were raised by their mother. During the First World War she took them to Burnham-on-Sea, in Somerset, for safety. It was there that young Donald was influenced by Ashley King, an evangelist who conducted missions for children on the beach. After the war ended, the family returned to London, but "the strains and stresses of the family’s life were so great that Donald became physically ill." This illness rendered him unable to attend school. Therefore, Donald was taught by a neighbour for four years. The neighbour helped Donald "develop what was to become a life-long love of music."
At the age of 14, Coggan was well enough to enter Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood. After his confirmation in 1924, he felt drawn to ordination. "His sisters had encouraged him by introducing him to an evangelical church, and these early influences never left him." At school Coggan studied Latin, Greek and Hebrew seriously.
Having shown an unusual aptitude for languages, Coggan was awarded an open exhibition to St John's College, Cambridge. He entered St John's College in 1928 with an open exhibition, but he was so studious that it was later upgraded to a full scholarship. He was outstanding in oriental languages, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac, and won a first in both parts of the Tripos examinations in 1930 and 1931. He won the Tyrwhitt Hebrew Scholarship, the Mason Hebrew Prize, and the Jeremie Septuagint Prize.
During his time in Cambridge, Coggan helped found a branch of the Christian Union, an evangelical student movement. He also joined the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union, serving as treasurer and vice-president. He became a member of the executive committee of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship.
Coggan "graduated with an impressive double first". He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1931 and a Master of Arts degree in 1932.
On graduating from Cambridge in 1931, Coggan decided to postpone preparation for ordination for three years. During that time he was an assistant lecturer in Semitic languages and Literature at the University of Manchester. There, he served on the board of management of the Manchester City Mission, and also edited the Inter-Varsity Fellowship magazine.
In 1934, Coggan went to Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, to prepare for ordination. The next year he married Jean Strain. She was the daughter of a London surgeon and a member of the administrative staff of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship. The couple lived in modest circumstances. They both shared in pastoral and evangelistic work in the parish.
The couple later had two children: (Dorothy) Ann Coggan (1938–2004) and Ruth Evelyn Coggan (born 1940).
As a youth, his mother took Coggan to an evangelical parish church in Upper Holloway. He remained "within the evangelical tradition" the rest of his life.
Coggan served as a curate in the evangelical St Mary's Church, Islington, from 1934 to 1937. He was ordained a priest in 1935.
From 1937 to 1944, Coggan served as Professor of New Testament studies and Dean of Residence at Wycliffe College in Toronto. During those years, he helped "restore the reputation of the college after a period of serious decline". Coggan spoke and preached in many places.
While in Canada, Coggan developed an interest in the theology and teaching of preaching and set up "schools of preaching". During that time, although an evangelical, meaning "a love of the Bible and a missionary dynamic", he dropped his "more fundamentalist attitudes".
Jean Coggan accompanied her husband to Canada. During their "happy years in Canada", Jean give birth to two daughters, Ann in 1938 and Ruth in 1940.
Wycliffe College awarded Coggan a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1941, and an honorary Doctorate of Divinity in 1944.
Coggan returned to England in 1944 as principal of the London College of Divinity until he became a bishop in 1956. He was invited to be a vice-president of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship. But, in spite of his previous work in the organisation, he declined because he could no longer state a belief in the Bible as "infallible". In addition to serving as principal, Coggan served as Macneil Professor of Biblical Exegesis from 1952 until he left.
When Coggan became principal, the college buildings at Highbury had been bombed by the Germans, and there were only a few students in residence. A new building was planned at Northwood, London. In the meantime, Coggan had to restore the college by using a manor house in Sussex. He recruited a gifted staff and imposed a strict regimen. Under Coggan's leadership, the college "became one of the Church of England's most highly regarded theological colleges".