Francis Hume Lyall PATON

PATON, FRANCIS HUME LYALL, (b. Aniwa, New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), 26 Aug 1870; d. Deepdene, Vic, 28 Sept 1938). Presbyterian missionary, minister and administrator.

Known as Frank, he was the third son of Presbyterian missionary John G Paton (q.v.) and his wife Margaret Whitecross, and followed in the footsteps of his famous father. He was educated at Scotch College, Ormond College and Melbourne University (MA 1892) and St Andrews (BD 1896), Scotland. In the same year, he married Clara Sophie Heyer, sister of a minister, and they were sent to Lenakel, Tanna New Hebrides where they remained until 1902. Ill-health forced their return to Australia, and Paton took up the organizing secretaryship of the Board of Missions of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Australia until 1904, when further health worries caused him to take up parish work at Dunolly (1904-7).

Restored health spurred him to become again involved in the promotion of missions as Foreign Mission secretary for the Victorian General Assembly from 1907 to 1925. While remaining involved in the support of foreign missions, he ministered at Deepdene for the next eleven years. Paton assumed the mantle of his father as a promoter and publicist for the New Hebrides mission and political activist in the interests of New Hebrideans. He was a prolific writer and publisher of letters, articles, pamphlets and books, mostly on Pacific missions but also on lay and student discipleship, as befitted an admirer of Henry Drummond and J R Mott. He was also a supporter of the Australian Inland Mission, and of the role of women in missionary service. He also served as an AIF chaplain in 1918-19 and was elected Moderator of the Victorian General Assembly in 1922-23. He was a distinguished member of a remarkable missionary family.

ADB 1 I; J G Miller, Live: A History of Church Planting in the New Hebrides, Book 2 (Sydney, 1981)

MALCOLM D PRENTIS