FENTON, William Lumsden, Rev (1852-1941)
Assembly memorial minute, 1941
When, on January 31st, 1941, the Rev. William Lumsden Fenton passed away, our Victorian Church lost one whose record goes farther back than that of any present minister in her service. She lost one, also, whom she had held in the highest honour.
Mr. Fenton was born at sea in 1852. His parents, who came from Scotland, settled in, or near, Geelong. It has been found impossible to secure a full and chronologically accurate account of the main events of his early life, but here are some facts: —His earliest education was at Geelong, and, in part at least, was received at High Church (now St. Giles), Geelong. He must have set his mind upon the ministry when quite young, for we find —and this is the earliest authentic date—that in 1876 “he resumed his theological course after an interval of a year. ” The year 1878 was his fourth year in the Theological Hall, and in 1879 he was licensed to preach the gospel.
His theological teachers (this was before the erection of Ormond College) were the Rev. Dr. A.J. Campbell, who took him in theology, the Rev. Dr. Peter Mercer, whose subject was apologetics, the Rev. McKenzie Fraser, and the Rev. Boyd McCay. It is obvious that he pursued his aim amid financial stress, for we find that for some years he was teaching at the Kew Acadamy, with a view to paying for a University Course. This accounts for the interruption of his theological course. Prior, no doubt, to his licensure, he did preaching work at Drouin, Warragul and Penola. He also used to relate some of his experiences in the Riverina.
It is much to be regretted that, up to this point, our knowledge of his life is imperfect and disjointed. But from July 20th, 1881, it is different, for on that date he was ordained by the Presbytery of Beechworth and inducted into the pastoral charge of Bright. Here he remained till 1895, and during that period he used to report to the Assembly on the Chinese Mission at Bright.
Here, too, his love of the mountains became a passion, and the opening up of the Buffalo Ranges to the public was largely due to him and the late Dr. Wilkinson. After leaving Bright, he was on the Preachers’ List for some months; in 1896 he became minister of Numurkah. His tenure there was only for three years. Then followed supply work, until 1901, when he was inducted to Port Fairy. This was his third and last charge, and he remained there till 1911, when he resigned and again went on to the List.
Now began what Mr. Fenton regarded as the most fruitful, as they were the most interesting, years of his ministerial service. For in 1916, at the age of 64 years, he was appointed Chaplain to the Metropolitan Gaols and Hospitals in succession to the Rev. Stewart Byron, who had died. His gaol work continued till March, 1940—a period of just over 24 years. For this work he was pre-eminently qualified. His physical stature, his love of man as man, his broad and generous sympathies, his modesty, his gift of humour, his deep religious convictions, all conspired to win for him the respect and the love of both prisoners and staff. From both classes he received many messages of sympathy in his last illness. To some of the prisoners he administered the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. He resigned from his Chaplaincy work in 1940, and lived in retirement, but was constantly to be found in the Assembly Hall. His failing health compelled him to go to St. Andrew’s Hospital, where he died.
A generous large-heartedness was an outstanding characteristic of Mr. Fenton. He loved the mountains, he loved literature (especially of the type of Scott’s works—fresh and breezy), he loved his fellow-men of whatever rank in life. He was a master of the art of conversation, and had an inexhaustible fund of stories humorous and pathetic. He could be very direct in his censure of anything mean, but was himself a man of the most genuine lowliness of heart. It is unnecessary to add that the deepest thing in Mr. Fenton was a simple and childlike faith in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour: this was the secret of his life.
Mr. Fenton was twice married. He left no children. To his step-daughters, the Misses Farrell, and to his nieces, the Misses Waldie, the Assembly tenders its sincere sympathy.
Gender
- Male