John Scott Lidgett was called the greatest Methodist since John Wesley and his life and works are explored in this biography. Founder and Warden of the Bermondsey Settlement, he was social reformer, educationalist (nationally and locally), leader of a political party on the LCC, theologian, journalist, ecclesiastical statesman, Free Church and Methodist observer and passionate ecumenist, almost all simultaneously and all from a base in the London slums. Uniquely for a Methodist minister, he was both elected Vice Chancellor of London University and made a Companion of Honour. His church recognized him as a principal architect of Methodist Union in 1932. His biography should be of particular interest to participants in the debate about unity between Anglican, Methodist and other Free Churches and could contribute to our understanding of how the Wesleyan Church came to terms with the explosive ideas, theological and social, of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.