HALFORD, James Henry Riviere, Rev (1865-1941)
Assembly memorial minute, 1942
James Henry Riviere Halford was born in Carlton on April 5th, 1865. He was a son of the late Professor G.B. Halford, who was the founder of the Medical School in the University of Melbourne, and who laid down the main lines along which it has been developing ever since. He received his early education at the Hawthorn Grammar School, and later did part of the medical course. He then went into the forests of South Gippsland, and was one of the pioneers of the Kongwak district. He knew by stern experience the hardships endured by the pioneers who cleared the land of the tall timber. His medical knowledge stood him in good stead in those early days. Towards the end of his sojourn in Gippsland he lost his first wife.
He was forty years old when he decided to enter the ministry, but he threw himself into his new work with the same determination and patience as he had shown as a pioneer. In 1905 and 1906 he was a Home Missionary in Whitfield and Taradale. The next three years were spent in the Ormond College Theological Hall, where he completed his course in 1909. In November, 1909, he was ordained at Mount Barker by the Presbytery of Onkaparinga; and Mount Barker was his first charge. Returning to Victoria, he was called to Birregurra (1913).
His succeeding charges were: Learmonth (1916), Mansfield (1924), Alphington (1927), and Wodonga (1931). He resigned his charge at Wodonga on June 19th, 1934, and thereafter did supply work in several charges. His health, however, was giving way, due in part to the severity of the pioneering work in Gippsland. He passed away on December 9th, 1941.
Mr. Halford was a kindly soul. He brought into the ministry a deep personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and along with that a personal experience of the realities of human life on its sterner side. The great principles of the evangelical faith were held by him with a tenacity horn of deep conviction. He has been described as a man “with a genius for making friends, and a wonderful gift in prayer. ”
To his widow and children the Assembly tenders its sincere sympathy.
Gender
- Male