George Robert BROWN

BROWN, GEORGE ROBERT (b. Tumby Bay, SA, 1895; d. Vic, 21 April 1965). Evangelist.

In the years between the two World Wars George Brown was one of the most prominent workers of the evangelical scene in SA. Born of a pioneering family at Tumby Bay on Eyre Peninsula, he became convinced by the time he was 18 that his life should be spent in Christ's ministry. After training and probationary work he was ordained a Methodist minister by the SA conference in 1921.

After several years following the normal ministerial pattern he became convinced his special calling was to evangelise those outside the church. He was given permission to work full time with the Evangelization Society of SA. When, in 1928, the Conference asked him to resume circuit work in Methodist churches he felt unable to comply. He resigned, preferring to forego the privileges and security of belonging to a large denomination that he might devote himself fully to mission among the unchurched.

Then followed years of evangelism throughout SA. He became a familiar figure outside factories and other industrial sites where he conducted open-air meetings during lunch hours. For twenty-one years he was leader of the Christian Industrial Fellowship which existed to promote such work and to foster fellowship groups in the work place. He enthusiastically supported the Bible Society and conducted many meetings to further its work.

When war broke out in 1939 he was quick to begin evangelistic work among service personnel, and was at the forefront of the Fighting Forces Christian Fellowship. In 1944 he transferred to Victoria where he continued his work until his sudden death in 1965.

His wife, Mildred, whom he married in 1924, was a gifted musician who supported and enhanced his work. His last letter, written on 11 April 1965, just ten days before his death, told of his plans for further developing evangelism in Vic and for a visit to SA later that year to conduct some 20 meetings in country areas for the Bible Society and to do some evangelism in other places.

A warm, intense, outgoing man, he spent himself to the very last following the Pauline injunction, 'Do the work of an evangelist'.

ARTHUR JACKSON