MACAULAY, Robert Wilson, Rev , B.A., Dr (1882-1951)
Assembly memorial minute, 1952
Wilson Macaulay was born on 8th October, 1882, in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, where his father, Dr. Samuel Macaulay, practised medicine. His early environments and training were within the Presbyterian Church of England. Dr. S. Macaulay came with his family to Western Australia, where in Perth he continued in the practice of medicine. His son
Wilson served for some time as a bank clerk, until he entered the Adelaide University, from which he graduated as Bachelor of Arts.
He thereupon returned to England and entered Westminster College, Cambridge, and completed a course in Divinity. He was licensed by the Presbytery of London, in June of 1907, and decided to visit his people in Perth before seeking a settled pastorate. Although it was his intention to stay two years only, he did not return to England.
He was ordained and inducted into the pastoral charge of East Fremantle, on the 20th February, 1908. After three years he came east to Victoria under call to Garden Vale, where he was inducted in 1911. During this pastorate he was on active service as a chaplain with the first A.I.F. - 1916 to 1918.
In 1921 the congregation of Trinity Church, Camberwell, called him, and on 9th December he was inducted as Colleague and Successor to the Rev. P.J. Murdoch. Upon the death of Mr. Murdoch eight years later, Mr. Macaulay assumed the full ministry of the
Camberwell congregation on 1st January, 1929. Here for 32 years he exercised a full ministry among his own congregation, in the life of his own communion of the State and Federal Assemblies, and also in the wider Church of his Lord. Nor was he disobedient to calls, both civil and international.
Two years after taking a seat in the Victorian Assembly his abilities were recognised. From 1913 to 1915 he was convener of the Immigration Committee; 1914 to 1919 Convener of Statistics Committee; 1926 Convener of the Theological Education Committee; 1932 to 1935 Convener of the Administration Committee; and from 1928 for 11 years Convener of the Business Committee. In this office he proved to be a Christian statesman, a friend and counsellor.
In 1933 he was called to the chair of Moderator of the Victorian Assembly, and during his year of office visited the Church in Korea. In 1939 he resigned from the Business Committee to accept the office of clerkship of the Assembly. The pressure of responsibilities within the General Assembly of Australia compelled him to resign the clerkship of the Victorian Assembly in 1942. From 1933 until the year 1951 he was clerk of the General Assembly of Australia; also Convener or a member of several of its committees.
Dr. Macaulay was an original member of the Australian Section of the World Council of Churches, which body he represented at the Princeton Conference in 1943. During this visit the University of Washington conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. In the year 1949 he again visited the United States, as religious adviser
to the Australian delegation to the United Nations Organisation Assembly in New York.
Dr. Macaulay belonged to the Church catholic. His fellowship and leadership were appreciated by all. He worked strenuously towards Christian unity, was a fearless prophet of social righteousness, a seer who was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. He was one of the best known and best beloved of our ministers, a man of great gifts, who gave graciously of consecrated scholarship. He served his God with a passion for righteousness and his fellows in sincere understanding and sympathy. He was an orator who never failed to impress his listeners, in his easy, fluent style and by his modest bearing and intense earnestness. He was an enthusiastic Churchman, always finding it difficult to refuse any appeal the Church placed before him.
The value and strength of Dr. Macaulay in the work of the Lord's kingdom was very early noted, and his influence never waned, as he continued to walk humbly with his Lord. He was first and always a minister of the Gospel, a vital preacher, a faithful pastor, a brother beloved and a friend ever in demand in the causes of goodness and truth and righteousness.
Mrs. Macaulay had died some 14 years previously.
In the midst of a busy life, he was translated, dying suddenly at his manse in Camberwell, on the evening of Wednesday, 1st August, 1951, after 43 years of ordained ministry.
To his family, two daughters and four sons, the Assembly tenders sincere sympathy.
Gender
- Male