RUSSELL, John, Rev. (1843-1917)
Assembly memorial minute 1918
The Rev. John Russell, who died on June 10th, 1917, spent 42 years in Australia in the service of the Church. He was born at Hulhead Grange, Keith, Scotland, in 1843.
He arrived in Melbourne in 1875, and for some months supplied the pulpit of Chalmers Church. In 1876 he was called to Newstead, Victoria, where he remained until 1880, when he accepted a call to Evandale, Tasmania.
After 31 years of faithful service in that charge, he resigned through ill-health and came to reside in Toorak. There he lived in retirement, enduring in his latter years constant pain and discomfort, which he bore with wonderful resignation and cheerfulness.
Mr. Russell, in addition to the faithful discharge of his pastoral duties, took an active share in the public work of the Church. He was the first clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Tasmania, and held that office from 1896 to 1911.
From time to time he occupied the position of Convener of the Home and Foreign Missions Committee, and in 1898 he was elected Moderator of the Federal Assembly of the Presbyterian Churches of Australia and Tasmania.
Mr. Russell was a faithful minister of Jesus Christ, who lived a blameless life and who won in an unusual degree the personal affection and regard of those who knew him. A faithful preacher of the gospel, he had the joy of leading many men and women to Christ, and his influence wherever he laboured was deep and lasting. In many a home his name will be long remembered with reverence and love.
He leaves behind him a widow, three daughters and a son. One of his daughters is the wife of Chaplain-Captain M. McQueen (abroad), and his only son is serving with the artillery in France.
To all the bereaved relatives the sincere sympathy of the Assembly is respectfully tendered, and the Assembly further records its thankfulness to God for the long and faithful services of one who was for so many years an honoured minister of the Church of Jesus Christ.
Gender
- Male