William Wooldridge Fereday (October 27, 1866 – July 31, 1959) was an English preacher, Bible teacher, and writer whose six-decade ministry within the Plymouth Brethren movement emphasized scriptural exposition and evangelistic zeal. Born in Romford, Essex, to William Wooldridge Fereday Sr., a tea taster, and Hannah Persis Childs, he grew up in a non-Christian home marked by integrity but not faith. At 13, attending an Anglican Sunday School in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, he grew concerned for his soul, finding peace at 16 in December 1882 through James 2:19 after hearing evangelists Richard Weaver and Charles Stanley in London. This conversion launched his preaching, which he began almost immediately despite no formal theological training. Fereday’s preaching career unfolded alongside a secular profession as a tea taster, reflecting the Brethren’s “tentmaking” ethos. After moving to Edinburgh in 1889, he preached widely in Scotland, England, and Europe, often in rented halls, while editing God’s Glad Tidings (later The Gospel Messenger) from 1872 to 1917. Known for clarity over the complexity of peers like J.N. Darby—whose portrait adorned his study—he wrote over 20 books, including Simon Peter: His Life and Letters and Elijah the Tishbite, and contributed to magazines like The Believer’s Magazine. Living in Rothesay, Scotland, for decades, he ministered tirelessly, even as a nervous condition plagued him—once humorously complaining stopped clocks next door kept him awake. Married to Hannah in the late 1880s, he had a daughter, Ethel Persis, born around 1888.