The Reverend John Ernest Auden was Vicar of Tong in Shropshire from 1896-1913. A son of the Vicar of Horninglow, Auden was born at Silverdale in Staffordshire, on 13th December 1860. He was educated at Shrewsbury and Lincoln College, Oxford, taking his B. A. in 1883 and M.A. in 1887. He was ordained in the Winchester Diocese in 1883, becoming Curate of Carisbrooke with St Nicholas-in-the-Castle, Isle of Wight, 1883-5. His second curacy was Wooburn in Buckinghamshire, before becoming Senior Curate of St Mary's Lichfield. In 1889 be became Vicar of Whittington in Shropshire and then Shrawardine. He married Margaret Anne and they had two daughters. It was in 1896 he moved to Tong to be its Vicar, and while here he was a member of Shifnal District Council, the Board of Guardians, and Chairman of Shifnal Cottage Hospital. He was an accomplished writer, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. His pocket book The Churches of Shropshire is still a useful companion when travelling around the county. He also wrote A History of the Albrighton Hunt, and part of the Shrewsbury School Register. After he left Tong Auden became Chaplain of the St John's Hospital in Lichfield before retiring, at the age of 65, to Stafford.