William Henry POWNALL

POWNALL, WILLIAM HENRY (b. England, 1834; d. Young, NSW, 29 Nov 1903). Anglican clergyman in south-western NSW.

Ordained deacon 1857, priest 1859 by the bp of Melbourne, Pownall served as seamen's chaplain in Shanghai, 1857-63, returning to Australia with his friend, Mesac Thomas (q.v.) the newly appointed first bishop of Goulburn. Pownall's first appointment (1864-69) was a pioneering ministry in the large and troubled goldfields town of Lambing Flats, now Young. After Tumut (1869-71), he became rector of Wagga Wagga, then the largest centre in southwestern NSW (1871-94). After being made archdeacon of the extensive Wagga Wagga region in 1874, he was awarded a Lambeth BD. A close and trusted ally of Bp Thomas, he was like him, a lifetime supporter of the evangelical Colonial and Continental Church Society. Made a canon of St Saviour's recently built cathedral, in Goulburn (1884), he also served as its dean from 1892 to 1903. Its memorial chapel to Bp Thomas owes much to Pownall's initiative and effort. Archdeacon Pownall was administrator of the diocese of Goulburn after Thomas died, and during the absence overseas of his successor Bp W Chalmers, at the Lambeth Conference of 1897. On Chalmers' death, he was chairman, as vicar-general of the electoral synod of 1902. He was also Bp Chalmers' diocesan registrar 1893-95 methodical and scrupulously careful about the smallest details. In 1895 he returned to Young as rector. Pownall was admired by his colleagues and parishioners for his thoughtfulness, kindness, and 'courtly bearing'. Many of his colleagues would have shared his own and Bp Thomas' evangelical convictions. Assiduous in his attention to the minutiae of parish duties, he was often ridiculed for his liking for evangelistic tracts, often found enclosed in correspondence.

ROBERT S M WITHYCOMBE