MAGUIRE, Thomas Worsley, Rev, B.A. (1867-1948)
Assembly memorial minute, 1949
Worsley Maguire was born in England, at Salford, Manchester, in 1867. He served apprenticeship in Manchester, to become an expert milling-machine engineer. An English firm sent Mr. Maguire out to Gawler, S.A., to superintend the building of locomotives, in 1888. The late Sir Alexander Peacock then invited Mr. Maguire over to Victoria to supervise the building of locomotives at Newport. Mr. Maguire lived at Williamstown for four years, during which time he was actively interested in the Church’s work. Seeking the active ministry, he returned to England in 1893 and then went to America, to enter the Moody Bible Institute at Chicago, during which time he worked in the Pacific Mission with Moody and Dr. White.
For six years he studied at the Marysville University, and the Presbyterian College at Tennessee, to graduate in the degree of B. A. At Tennessee he carried on Y.M.C.A. and evangelistic work among the students. During the Spanish-American War he was Y.M.C.A, secretary among the troops of Chicamauga Park, and made contacts with John R. Mott, Robert E. Spurr, and Dr. Fairburn.
He returned to Australia in 1901, and accepted a Home Mission appointment in Fremantle, at Beaconsfield. That year he married Miss Ellen A. Quarton, a talented pianist and organist, and returned to America in 1905, a move urged by the University at Tennessee. He took charge of the Presbyterian Church at Harriman. For some eight years he served the Presbyterian Church in three States. In 1913 he had charge, as Home Mission Superintendent, of 133 stations in the Middle West.
His health was impaired under this strain, so that he followed his wife and son back to South Australia, where Mrs. Maguire was visiting her mother. In 1914, Mr. Maguire was received by the General Assembly of Australia as a member of its ministry. His first charge was St. Peter’s, S.A., whose minister had gone overseas on leave. Mr. Maguire again interested himself in Y.M.C.A. and held the rank of Chaplain-General at the Mitcham Camp, S.A.
Upon the return of Rev. J.C. McPhee to St. Peter’s, Mr. Maguire accepted a call to High Church (later St. Giles’), Geelong, and was there inducted on the 7th December, 1915. Here he laboured for 23 years. Ill-health compelled retirement on the 7th March, 1938. Later he served the Home Mission Committee for four years at Healesville. He was for three years at Horsham during the absence of the Rev. Fairlie Forrest. In 1945, he accepted a Home Mission appointment to Cowes.
Mr. Worsley Maguire corresponded with the Poet Laureate—John Masefield, with whom he was a personal friend. Among a wide circle of friends, Mr. Maguire was regarded as a most up-to-date thinker, and a foremost experience, and held the esteem of young and old alike.
He passed away at Cowes on the 30th October, 1948.
To Mrs. Maguire and her son the Assembly tenders sincerest sympathy.
Gender
- Male