Frank William BOREHAM

BOREHAM, FRANK WILLIAM (b. Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, 3 March 1871; d. Melbourne, Vic, 18 May 1959). Baptist preacher and essayist.

Raised in the Church of England, Boreham was converted in 1888 and in 1890 was baptised at the Stockwell Old Baptist Church. In 1892, he commenced study at Spurgeon's Pastors' College; two years later he was called to the Mosgiel Baptist Church, New Zealand. Following pastorates at Mosgiel (1895-1907), the Baptist Tabernacle, Hobart (1907-16), and the Armadale Baptist Church, Melbourne (1916-28), and a career as a freelance writer and editor, he commenced what he termed a 'shuttle-ministry' in the churches of many Australian denominations. With a reputation as a 'silver-tongued orator', his sermons and essays were notable for their absence of theological language and their warm human interest. Boreham's 46 books of sermons, essays and stories—including The Luggage of Life (1912), Mountains in the Mist (1914), A Bunch of Everlastings (1920) and his autobiography, My Pilgrimage (1940)—sold over 1 million copies. In 1954, he was appointed OBE 'in recognition of his services to religion and literature as preacher and essayist'.

T H Crago, The Story of F W Boreham (London, 1961)

SUSAN E EMILSEN