Henry John CONGREVE

CONGREVE, HENRY JOHN (b. Surrey, England, 31 March 1829; d. East Adelaide, SA, 10 July 1918). Editor, writer and preacher.

Henry Congreve's drive and enterprise were obvious throughout his life. Having served five years apprenticeship to a London doctor, he came as an assisted immigrant to Adelaide in 1849, and worked in the Port Lincoln district, acting as doctor to the aborigines. In 1850 he was bullock driving at Burra, and loading wool at Pekina. In 1851 he walked overland to the Victorian diggings where he remained for 12 years. He became editor of the Inglewood Advertiser in 1863, and later secretary of the Inglewood Hospital and School board. In 1865 he married Jane Marshall Kirkwood, by whom he had eight sons and two daughters. Three sons and one daughter died in early childhood. In 1880 he returned to SA as editor first of the Gawler Standard, and from 1885 until 1890 of the Gawler Bunyip. He contributed many stories of the early days and of the diggings to these papers and to the Observer and the Chronicle.

Finding no Baptist church in Inglewood, Congreve became involved with the Presbyterian church. From 1882 he supplied the pulpit at Smithfield near Gawler. In 1885, at the request of Golden Grove, he took on their services also, preaching there on Sunday mornings and at Smithfield in the afternoons, until his health deteriorated in 1891. He took an active part in both congregations and enabled them to survive the long period without a minister. After his retirement he moved in 1894 to Adelaide where he became a member, and from 1899 until 1916, an elder of Chalmers (later Scots) Church. For many years he represented Chalmers in the Presbytery of Adelaide and the State Assembly. He served on committees, visited the sick, and preached at night services. He was a man of great faith and hope.

Henry Congreve and his sister Emily (183096), who arrived in 1852, were siblings of Matilda Evans (q.v.), the novelist. Emily conducted schools at Prospect Village and Athelstone between 1857 and 1864, published many devotional poems, and, as 'Little Jacob' Colonial Pen Scratchings (Mount Barker 1860). She cared deeply about animal welfare, and her will, which left legacies to the Bible Society, the poor, and the inmates of the Destitute Asylum, confirms her piety and goodheartedness.

Robert J Scrimgeour, Some Scots Were Here (Adelaide, 1986); Bunyip 19 July 1918;Presbyterian Banner Aug 1918; Observer 3 Oct 1896

BARBARA WALL