George Albert CRAIKE

CRAIKE, GEORGE ALBERT (b. Hobart, Tas, 1879; d. Sydney, NSW, 1929). Baptist minister.

Growing up in the Hobart Baptist Tabernacle, George Craike manifested notable preaching gifts and was known as the 'boy preacher'. He co-pastored the Reed Memorial Baptist Church in Launceston for two years before going to Spurgeon's College, London for training (1905-09). In 1909 he returned to Hobart, married Ruby Morgan, also from a Hobart Baptist family, and returned to minister to the Zion Baptist Chapel, Chesham, Bucks. There followed three ministries in Australia, at Devenport (1912-15), Clifton Hill, Victoria (1915-19) and Petersham, NSW (1919-29).

From Hobart days, Craike's preaching had a remarkable impact. The 'attractive, original and practical' style of the boy-preacher was deepened by his London experience, which included Dr Campbell Morgan's School of Bible Study, where attendances are said to have reached 2000. Craike's Clifton Hill ministry included a smaller, but similar enterprise.

George Craike was more than a preacher. At Petersham he initiated the Men's Morning Meeting, which brought many men into the life of the church. (At the same time, Canon W G Hilliard (q.v.) was ministering, with similar success, to the men of the same municipality at St Clement's Anglican Church, Marrickville.) Craike believed strongly in sporting clubs for the young. At an early stage, he saw the vast possibilities of the 'wireless'. During the epidemic of 1919, he introduced individual communion cups. He kept people involved in the life of the church by finding jobs, small and large, for them, in accordance with his maxim, 'use or lose'. A series of sermons, preached in 1928, became a book called People at Wit's End Corner. Unhappily he himself was overcome by inordinate anxiety and died tragically. His widow outlived him by seven years.

P G YOUNG