John Moore GRIFFITHS

GRIFFITHS, JOHN MOORE (b. Wolverhampton England 9 Nov 1855; d. Kew 21 Feb 1943). Melbourne tea merchant and Christian leader.

John Griffiths' elder brother James (q.v.) came to Melbourne in 1873. Seeing prospects in the tea trade, he began a business and sent for John who came to Melbourne in 1875 on the first steam ship to travel to Australia. Their firm, Griffiths Brothers Pty Ltd, prospered and became known Australia wide. The brothers opened Griffiths' Brothers Tea Rooms at 64 Elizabeth St Melbourne. This became a meeting place for Melbourne evangelicals and in 1929 the venue for C H Nash's (q.v.) City Men's Bible Class.

John Griffiths was closely involved in starting the Upwey Convention. He had built a 'union' church at Tecoma, which was later moved to Upwey and the convention began in the church grounds: at first by the Melbourne Gospel Crusade, but later by an Upwey Convention Council, of which John Griffiths was elected first president. Around 1902 he bought a large country estate at Upwey, 'Forest Park', where he regularly hosted visitors and speakers from overseas and interstate. Forest Park also provided the venue for the early missionary gatherings and the Bible readings by C H Nash of the convention.

In 1883 Griffiths was a member of the founding council of the Evangelisation Society of Victoria, later the Evangelisation Society of Australia. He was actively associated with the BFBS, the YMCA, of which he was president for a while, and CMS. He was also on the council of MBI for some years.

John Griffiths had a long association with the Anglican church and was a lay reader. He worshipped at St Hilary's, Kew, where the vicar the Rev C H Barnes (q.v.) was a prominent evangelical. There he met C H Nash who was vicar of the neighbouring St Columb's Hawthorn 1900-1906. He remained a close friend and supporter of Nash for the rest of his life, and Nash often stayed at Forest Park during convention times.

On 31 Dec 1891 John Griffiths married Margaret Wrightman Davidson (d. 1928). They had seven children —Jack, Frank, Marjorie [Cock], Leslie, Norman, Kenneth and Alan —three of whom went to the mission field. Dr Leslie Griffiths was killed by bandits in Iran in 1942 while serving with CMS; Dr Norman Griffiths was a missionary in Bolivia and Egypt; Kenneth Griffiths was a missionary in the Solomon Islands with the SSEM.

John Griffiths was generous, a gracious host, and an influential evangelical leader. He was one of a number of able and well-off Melbourne business men who put their ability, time and possessions in the service of the gospel. He was also one of a group which supported and enabled C H Nash in his ministry.

DARRELL PAPROTH