William WHALE

WHALE, WILLIAM (b. Redditch, Worcestershire, England, 10 Sept 1842; d. Brisbane, Qld, 4 Sept 1903). Baptist minister and social reformer.

Whale entered the work force aged six after two years of formal education. Moving to Birmingham in 1852, he worked in a brass foundry and influenced by social reformers, he participated in Sunday school, band of hope and mutual improvement activities, together with public speaking and preaching. He married in 1863 and entered Spurgeon's College, London in 1865. He pastored three Baptist churches in Suffolk and Yorkshire between 1867 and 1885 and was widely known as a 'political parson' because of his reformist views.

Whale commenced an 18 year pastorate at the Wharf St Baptist Church, Brisbane, in Oct 1885 during which time it quickly outgrew its building and in 1890 was relocated in the newly built City Tabernacle. He introduced significant changes to his church, including the first Christian Endeavour Society in Queensland in February 1888. He was also the leading statesman of the Baptist Association of Queensland. Whale was a well known social reformer. He participated in the 'New Theology' debates in 1890s, was the founding president of the Brisbane Ministers' Union in 1890, advocated workers' rights during the bitter labour disputes of 1890s and was elected president of an arbitration committee during the 1895 bootmakers' strike. He was a leading member of the Bible in State Schools League and despite being a temperance advocate condemned the Brisbane Council of Churches for their class bias in opposing the legislation of the 'bogus clubs' in 1899. Lawson calls him 'Brisbane's leading Nonconformist clergyman of the period'.

R Lawson, Brisbane in the 1890s (Brisbane, 1973); P J O'Leary, William Whale: The Making of a Colonial Baptist Preacher 1842-1903 (Univ of Qld BA thesis, 1987); P J O'Leary, Queensland Baptists 1846-1926 (Univ of Qld MA thesis, 1991)

PATRICK O'LEARY