Hussey Burgh MACARTNEY

MACARTNEY, HUSSEY BURGH (JR) (b. ?; d. Darjeeling, India, 1908). Anglican clergyman.

Hussey Burgh Macartney Jr was the youngest son of H B Macartney of the same name (q.v.). He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1860, MA 1874), was ordained deacon 1866 and priest 1867 by the bp of Melbourne. He was chaplain of Industrial Schools, Melbourne, 1866-68, and was incumbent of St Mary's, Caulfield from 1868 until 1898, his only parish. During these thirty years he worked with great zeal and diligence with a single eye to the glory of God and the salvation of men and women. He was an eloquent preacher, a fine Bible expositor and an energetic worker inside and outside his parish. As the population increased he built churches in the then outlying parts—St John's, East Malvern, St Stephen's and St Clement's, Elsternwick.

Early in his ministry he became an ardent supporter of missionary work, and did more to foster interest in missions than perhaps any other person of his generation in Australia. He worked zealously for missions to Jews, Aborigines and Chinese in Victoria, and was one of the main movers for the formation of the Church Missionary Association of Victoria (later than CMS). Also through the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society (CEZMS), he supported many lady missionaries and national workers in India and China. The CEZMS had started in England about 1880, and such were Macartney's efforts that he was asked to commence the Australian branch of this Society in 1890. The Australian CEZMS flourished through Macartney's enthusiasm, sending out 13 additional lady missionaries, until it merged with the Victorian CMA in July 1896.

In order to maintain the interest in missionary work among his wide constituency in Australia and New Zealand, he commenced a missionary journal in 1873 called the Missionary at Home and Abroad, which he published monthly until his departure for England in 1898 when he became home secretary for the BFBS. The CMS recognised his work by making him an honorary governor for life. At their meeting on 26 Oct 1908 the Vic CMA Committee stated of him when they learned of his recent death: 'The desire to spread the message of the Gospel to the heathen was a flame that burned with consuming power in his heart ... Practically, the father of missions in Victoria, his pioneer work in India and China prepared the way for the planting of the Church Missionary Association in this place'.

In addition to his interest in missions, he was one of the founders of the Evangelisation Society of Australasia and took a very active part in evangelistic efforts in town and country. The Bible Society, the YMCA and the YWCA, the Lighthouse Mission and temperance societies found in him a staunch advocate. He died in Darjeeling, North India, whilst on a visit with his daughter to the mission stations of that country, in which he was most deeply interested.

Victorian Churchman, The Missionary at Home and Abroad; Records of the Victorian Branch of the CMS; Keith Cole, Sharing in Mission: the centenary history of the Victorian Branch of the CMS, 1892-1992 (1992)

KEITH COLE