William George HILLIARD

HILLIARD, WILLIAM GEORGE. (b. Redfern, NSW, 29 May 1887; d. Parramatta, NSW, 1 March 1961). Anglican bishop and headmaster.

Born of working class parents, Hilliard rose to eminence through hard work and personal flair. His father Alpha was of convict descent: his mother Eleanor was to become a significant influence in her son's life. She was prematurely widowed so Hilliard was obliged to seek education through scholarships. He won a place at Sydney Boys High School and then a Teacher's College scholarship to the University of Sydney. His chief academic interests were literature and language. He became proficient in French and German and revelled in Dickens Tennyson and Shakespeare, being invited to address the Dickens Fellowship in London in 1948. He wrote occasional poetry to the delight of friends and colleagues.

Hilliard graduated MA in English from the University of Sydney and was posted to Fort Street Boys High School in 1910. The headmaster of the day, A J Kilgour, was impressed with the quality of Hilliard's teaching of modern languages and was disappointed when he left after eighteen months to be ordained into the Church of England in the diocese of Sydney (deacon 191l, priest 1912), although without formal full-time training.

His curacy was served under the dynamic George Chambers (q.v.) in the parish of Holy Trinity, Dulwich Hill. Here he was given a heavy program of preaching and ministry in the inner city Mission Zone of Sydney. This responsibility was soon replaced by an even more onerous one, that of headmastership of the new Anglican school in the parish, Trinity Grammar School. Under the eagle eye of Chambers he put the school on a sound academic and economic footing; enrolments rose from 29 to 100 in less than four years.

In 1916 he accepted his first parish, the old and prestigious church of St John's, Ashfield. Here he was to experience severe trial with the death of his wife, Pearl, and the hostility of many parishioners towards his churchmanship. With the support of Abp Wright he weathered the storm, not moving to St Clement's, Marrickville until 1926.

This large parish with its suburban and industrial component presented a challenge to 'establish a cathedral in the Western Suburbs'. However, demographic changes frustrated his purposes, as did Abp Wright's pressing invitation to return to Trinity Grammar School. He resumed his post as headmaster in 1929. The school was in jeopardy because of a huge capital debt incurred by the purchase of valuable sites at Strathfield and Summer Hill as the depression eroded the school's support. By the sheer strength of his personality, good humour and educational expertise he piloted the school through economic crisis. He implanted a love of sport in general and cricket in particular within a generation of schoolboys.

Hilliard was not without ambition and in 1934 came the offer of his own diocese, Nelson in New Zealand. He and his family thoroughly enjoyed the peace and beauty of this rural diocese. He travelled widely, building up his flock and gaining a national reputation for oratory and bonhomie. Yet he sacrificed both position and autonomy to return to Sydney at Abp Howard Mowll's (q.v.) request to become coadjutor bishop of Sydney in 1940, combined with the parish of St John's, Parramatta.

His two decades of service as coadjutor bishop witnessed a period of great expansion of the Anglican Church in Sydney. He had an insatiable appetite for work, but this caused a steady decline in his health after 1950. He unwisely accepted the position of registrar of the diocese, he sat on more than twenty four committees, he ran a large city parish, he preached at the cathedral, he confirmed hundreds, he had his own radio program; he represented the Anglican Church on television. He was a leading Freemason, he waited on the State government on moral issues. He sat on the State government's Wyndham Committee into secondary education, ensuring a place for the teaching of scripture in State schools. His inability to decline office produced increasing inefficiency in the Registry, inadequate performance in diocesan committees, and sermons often poorly prepared, lacking ready conclusions, decorated as much by cricket and Shakespeare as the bible. He was a low churchman with only a limited vision of evangelicalism as a theological position. Nonetheless on his death he was widely mourned for his personal leadership (especially amongst men), and for his gifts of oratory and his transparent loyalty.

W G Hilliard, What Shall I Render To The Lord And other Poems (unpub) nd; Janet West, Innings of Grace, a Life of Bishop Hilliard (Rozelle, 1988)

JANET WEST