The Church Army is an Anglican religious organisation founded by Wilson Carlile in 1882, and established in Australia, in Perth, in 1932. It provided staffing and oversaw day to day operations of children's Homes in the Newcastle Anglican Diocese: Morpeth Home for Children (St Alban's Boys Home) (the Church Army was involved 1935-1948), St Elizabeth's Girls Home (involved 1937-1961) and St Christopher's Home for Little Children (involved 1937-58).
The Church Army movement is evangelical, and trains preachers to spread the word of the Gospels. It trains both women and men, and has a long-running programme of training Aboriginal evangelists.
The Church Army was supported by the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle, which gave them a house in 1933. In 1935 two staff members arrived from England on board the Hobsons Bay: Captain WA Hoare and Captain DJ Young. Captain Hoare was to be attached to the staff of the Army's headquarters in Newcastle and Captain Young was to take up duty as superintendent of St Alban's Home for Boys at Morpeth. Captain Young's wife travelled with him.
In 1938 an Aboriginal woman, Muriel Stanley, was brought to St Christopher's from Yarrabah Mission in Central Australia to train as a Church Army sister. The Church Army told the Singleton Argus that they hoped she would return to her community to minister to her people.
Sources used to compile this entry: 'Passengers on Hobsons Bay', The West Australian, 2 February 1935, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/32832328; 'Join Church Army: Farewell to Mr R Sansom', Northern Star, 22 December 1936, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/94677952; 'Aboriginal Girl as Missionary: First to be trained by Church', Singleton Argus, 4 November 1938, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/81921457; Thinee, Kristy and Bradford, Tracy, Connecting Kin: Guide to Records, A guide to help people separated from their families search for their records [completed in 1998], New South Wales Department of Community Services, Sydney, New South Wales, 1998, https://clan.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/connectkin_guide.pdf; Information provided by custodian of Newcastle Diocesan Archives, August 2020, held in Find & Connect project files.
Prepared by: Naomi Parry
Created: 3 March 2011, Last modified: 19 December 2022
Last updated: 4 August 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nsw/biogs/NE00084b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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