Laura M. FRANCIS

FRANCIS, LAURA M (b. West Maitland, NSW, 1865; d. Ashfield, NSW, 1 Dec 1946). Sister of the People, itinerant evangelist, hospital visitor.

Daughter of a prosperous boot merchant, and of a 'distinctively and vitally Christian home', Laura Francis moved to Grafton in 1871 and was the product of North Coast Methodism. Converted in her early teens, she took immediately to charitable works, visiting the sick and seeking to alleviate poverty.

Seeking larger fields for her Christian service, and possibly some adventure, she pressured W G Taylor (q.v.), Superintendent of the Sydney CMM, into opening a home for Sisters of the People in 1890. She was the first young woman received into the work which, initially involved mainly personal evangelism and philanthropy in the Sydney slums. From the start, she was also involved in hospital visitation. She also involved herself fully in the spiritual life of the CMM and exercised a strong influence on her fellow workers. Taylor's son recalled 50 years later that 'she was my first class leader, and her deep spirituality, wise counsels and beautiful spirit left a profound mark for good on my early Christian life and character'.

In 1893, the question of opening a children's home was raised, and Sister Francis was one of those who forced the issue and brought about its establishment at Woolloomooloo. She was designated for the children's home but, within a month, left it to go back to slum work. Apparently life at the home was too quiet and unadventurous for her! Her interest in the home remained and it was through the work which she and others did in the slums that many children were 'rescued' and placed in the home (later Dalmar). In later years she spent some time collecting for the home to help cover the cost of the new buildings at Carlingford.

Laura Francis spent several years around the turn of the century away from Sydney as she went first to New Zealand to establish a home for delinquent girls (whom she saw as her main sphere of work at this time) and then on to the Water Street Mission in New York to do similar work under the Rev Samuel Hadley. Following this, she travelled to England where she perhaps found her true vocation. She conducted a number of successful missions in London and was actively involved at many meetings associated with the Great Welsh Revival, an experience which she described as greatly enriching her own spiritual life.

On her return to Sydney, she at first became an itinerant evangelist for the CMM and from about 1912 was employed by the Evangelical Committee of the (united) Methodist Church, under the control of its Home Mission Department, as its second evangelist, when the Rev A E Walker (q.v.) was its main evangelist. During this period, she conducted missions widely throughout NSW, many of them highly successful, both in terms of the first commitments won and in terms of the deepening commitment of existing Christians. Several of her converts entered the Methodist ministry and many others became front-rank lay workers for the Church. On a few occasions, circuits hired her for some months to act as a 'second minister' and her work seems to have been uniformly well received.

Little is known of her preaching style though she was rated a 'capable and interesting' speaker, and one who kept close to the teaching of Scripture. She took no interest in new theological interpretations, but 'what she believed and had proved in her own experience she told with confidence, and often with lasting effect ...' She was, in fact, a distinguished evangelist at a time when such work was not usually regarded as an appropriate sphere for women.

As she grew older, Sister Francis devoted more of her time to the work she had practised from the very beginning, hospital visitation becoming one of the first full-time visitors appointed by the Methodist Church in NSW. Most of this work was done at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. She was no mere social caller on patients, rather an almoner or social worker before Sydney knew those terms: and one working from a Christian base. She met trains to ensure that country patients got to hospital without trouble, finding places in which people on the path to recovery could convalesce and writing to anxious relatives. All of that, in addition to providing companionship for the lonely, courage and comfort for the fearful, and a word about Jesus for all, amounted to an exacting work which made enormous calls on her sympathy and understanding.

Laura Francis was often heard to say that 'The second mile is the mile that counts'. It was her willingness always to travel that second mile, coupled with the radiance of her faith, which made her loved by those whom she served for more than fifty years. It was her determination and her buoyant spirit which ensured that she served her Lord successfully in the difficult spheres to which she was called.

Methodist, 19 Oct 1940, 7, 14 December t946; D I Wright, Mantle of Christ (St Lucia, 1984); D I Wright, Dalmar: Century of Caring (Sydney, 1993)

DON WRIGHT