Ian Wellesley HOLT

HOLT, IAN WELLESLEY (b. Sydney, NSW, 26 Sept 1913, d. Sydney, NSW, 5 May 1989). Chairman, Crusader Union of New South Wales and Anglican layman.

The third of six children of Thomas Samuel and Mary Alison Holt, prominent Anglican laypeople, Ian Holt was educated at Trinity Grammar School, and the University of Sydney, where he commenced his medical course in 1932. While still at school, he had been influenced by Howard Guinness (q.v.) who established the Crusader Union in 1930. Modelled on the Crusaders Union of Great Britain, this was an interdenominational Organisation working among the children enrolled in independent schools. Holt became one of the early leaders of the Sydney University Evangelical Union, also established by Dr Guinness, and achieved prominence in a mission to the University held in 1935 which attracted derisive opposition from the undergraduate huddle. This tested the mettle of the young Holt in challenging circumstances; he rather liked a scrap.

Following war service in New Guinea and Borneo with the AAMC, he m. Dorrie Alfreda Finckh on 5 June 1943. He established a general practice at Northbridge in 1952, where he lived and worked until his retirement in 1972. Ian Holt threw himself into church work with the same vigour that he had shown in his undergraduate days. As well as an active membership of St Mark's, Northbridge, he was a member of the Council of Sydney Church of England Grammar School ('Shore') 1959-88, and a lay Canon of St Andrew's Cathedral 1964-84. He was a member of both the diocesan and provincial synods of the Church of England in Australia. He joined the Council of the Crusader Union in 1952 at the invitation of the chairman, Paul White (q.v.), and soon became hon secretary. In 1961 he became chairman, and for the next nineteen years until his retirement in 1978, his name was virtually synonymous with Crusaders.

The youth camps conducted by Crusaders had expanded rapidly in the previous few years, with the development of a camp-site at Lake Macquarie and a Conference Centre at Galston on the northern outskirts of Sydney. Throughout the 1960s there was steady expansion of the camps program, regional Saturday night meetings and of the number of Crusader meetings in schools. The work of Crusaders was steadily expanding as the number and size of independent schools in the Sydney region grew throughout these two decades. Crusaders successfully met the challenge of keeping pace with this growth, though further development of the two properties did not take place until later.

'Doc' Holt provided much of the impetus for this growth. He was dynamic, inspirational, ever the optimist. He approached everything with a boyish enthusiasm. Prayer was of tremendous importance to him and corporate prayer was a significant part of every meeting he led. He constantly looked for the best in people, and their usual response was to rise to his expectation. Crusaders was always at the forefront of his thinking, despite his busy professional practice and his involvement in other committee work. He was always prepared to provide his professional services without charge to missionaries, and often out of hours. He was honorary medical officer to several missionary societies; a visiting missionary would normally receive a cheque rather than a bill. The single-mindedness of his zeal for youth work could make it difficult for him to see another viewpoint, but as his years as chairman lengthened, and as his fellow workers in later years tended to be those who had grown up in the movement under his leadership, so the stature and effectiveness of his chairmanship grew.

Not for one moment would Holt entertain any notion that Crusaders could be anything more than a youth movement, enhancing and enriching, but not supplanting the work of evangelical congregations. As a student he had experienced the divisions caused by the Sinless Perfection movement, and made sure that the Crusader Union remained true to its doctrinal statement and its complementary role to the youth ministry of churches. His influence in Crusaders was felt at every level: beside being a most active chairman, he enjoyed leadership at camps, speaking at meetings, and (as he termed it) 'getting alongside' boys at camps. The Crusader badge was from the early 1930s to the early 1960s an important part of membership of the movement, conferred only after scrutiny of the applicant by the Council. He always wore it, long after the wearing of badges had ceased to be common practice throughout the community. His own children were Crusaders in their school and student days, and his fourth son, John, ultimately became chairman.

Under Ian Holt's leadership, the Crusader Union became an increasingly significant and effective avenue of evangelism among independent school children in Sydney during the generation after World War Two.

J Parker, A Vision of Eagles (Sydney, 1980); Year Book of the Diocese of Sydney, 1962-86

STUART BRAGA