Frederick Chidley IRWIN

IRWIN, FREDERICK CHIDLEY (b. near Enniskillan, Ireland; d. Cheltenham, England, 1860). Soldier and civil servant.

Captain Irwin, commandant of a detachment of the 13th (Suffolk) Regt, sailed from Portsmouth with his troops on the auxiliary sloop Sulphur as part of Lt Gov James Stirling's pioneer settlement party hound for WA on 4 Feb 1829. Stirling proclaimed the new colony on Garden Island on 18 June 1829. There was no clergyman in the party, but Irwin's piety as an evangelical Anglican was such that his regimental church parades were opened to all the settlers. When the settlement was established at Perth, Irwin conducted the first service there under a large gum tree near the present site of the Town Hall. The arrival of Chaplain J B Wittenoom in 1830 marked the commencement of the Anglican church in Perth in its more normal, clerically-led form. However Irwin, who had established a property on the Upper Swan, was concerned that there was no effective ministry outside Perth and Fremantle.

Irwin relieved Swan as deputy governor in 1832; in 1834 he was posted to England. He sought help at St John's Chapel, Bedford Row, London, indicating a deep and well-connected involvement in evangelical circles. This was where the Eclectic Society in 1786 discussed evangelism at Botany Bay, and where in 1799 the foundation of the CMS ('for Africa and the East') was planned. Irwin's plea for a like interest in the settlers and aboriginals of WA - he had published a book on the subject—had evoked no response from established societies, but the Hon & Rev Baptist Noel, minister at the Chapel, acted. A meeting in his church vestry on 23 Sept 1835 led to the formation of the Western Australian Missionary Society on 30 Sept 1835. Support was given by survivors and heirs of the Clapham Sect, such as Lord Teignmouth and Lord Glenelg. Noel joined the foundation committee. The first missionaries to the settlers of WA and the Aborigines sailed in January 1836. Irwin himself returned to WA as military commandant until his retirement in 1852.

However, it is the wider ramifications of the work which accord Irwin his significance as a great evangelical layman. Calls for help from NSW led to the society's name and interest being extended. It became the Australian Church Missionary Society and then (15 May 1838) the Colonial Church Society (CCS). A month later the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel resolved to undertake similar work. 'The C.C.S. was formed because of the avowed inability of the only missionary society (SPG) which had previously aimed at their instruction ... to meet the numerous calls for help which were continually pouring into it' wrote Cavie Richardson of Halifax, Novia Scotia (6 May 1840).

The CCS was the CMS equivalent for evangelical work in British colonies and for their colonists. The kindred nature of the work of the Newfoundland School Society and the needs of English residents in Europe led ultimately to the formation of the Colonial Church and School Society in 1851 and then of the Colonial and Continental Church Society (CCCS) in 1861 under the energetic guidance of Mesac Thomas (q.v.). Besides its European work, Irwin's creation was active in almost every British settlement, establishing churches and schools, including theological colleges. Bp J C Ryle saw advocacy of the CCCS as one of his major national responsibilities.

The success and enormity of the CCCS undertaking led to moves prior to World War One to establish daughter societies in the more established and affluent colonies. Initial plans tor Australia envisaged joint CMS/CCCS Associations in NSW and Vic, but these plans were set aside in 1914 at the outbreak of war. In 1919 an alternative plan to establish the (Australian) Bush Church Aid Society (in association with the CCCS) was adopted. Mullins (the UK CCCS sec) visited Australia and funds were provided by CCCS to get the BCA launched. The CCCS continued to channel its Australian assistance through the new society. In particular it did not forget Irwin's initial area of concern, earmarking support for Denmark in the SW of WA until well after World War Two. By that time BCA had undertaken the major support of the church in the diocese of North West Australia. Thus, Irwin's enduring legacy is the principle of the whole Anglican church aiding its immigrant members by voluntary direct action of its own committed lay members. It is doubtful that any other Australian layman has been an equal contributor to Anglican evangelicalism worldwide.

Brian Underwood, Faith at the Frontiers: Anglican Evangelicals and their Countrymen Overseas(150 years of the Commonwealth and Continental Church Society) (London, 1974); A E Williams, West Anglican Way (Perth, 1989); ADB 2; Peter Toon, (ed), J C Ryle, a self portrait (Pennsylvania, 1975)

LM ABBOTT