He was born in the rectory at Stanford-on-Teme, Worcestershire, the fourth son of the Revd Edward Winnington-Ingram and of Louisa (daughter of Henry Pepys, Bishop of Worcester).
When the first Varsity Game between Cambridge and Oxford Universities was arranged in 1872, the Cambridge captain was E. Winnington Ingram, but because of Tripos work, he was unavailable to travel to Oxford.
Wishing to develop a better process for the production of alkali than the Leblanc process, he joined in partnership with John Brunner, who also worked for Hutchinson, to improve the ammonia-soda process, building a factory for this purpose at Winnington.
His son Reginald Pepys Winnington-Ingram was Professor of Greek at the University of London.