Henry YOUNGMAN

YOUNGMAN, HENRY (b. 1848; d. 1927). Methodist minister, administrator and editor.

Henry Youngman entered the Wesleyan Methodist ministry in NSW in 1871 and served in several circuits before moving to Qld. In 1887 he was appointed to the Albert Street Church in Brisbane and later served in Toowoomba, Gympie, Ipswich and West End.

Youngman was a prominent figure in the Methodist Church in Qld. When a separate Methodist Conference was formed in Qld in 1893, he was elected its first president. A key figure in the efforts during the 1890s to unite the various branches of Methodism (principally Wesleyan and Primitive) in Qld, Youngman was elected the first president of the United Conference in 1898. He served a second term as president in 1907. Youngman was later awarded an honorary DD by the University of Toronto in recognition of his work in the union of the Methodist Church.

Youngman's administrative gifts were recognised in his appointment as Connexional secretary for the Qld Conference in 1906, a position he held until his retirement in 1920. His contribution to the Methodist Church extended beyond Queensland, being elected secretary of the General Conference in 1907 and serving as president-general 1910-13.

Youngman was forceful in presenting the social ideals of Methodism in the public arena and he was well known as a preacher of outstanding ability and power. Besides his administrative abilities, Youngman was an able writer, founding the first Queensland Wesleyan Methodist journal The Christian Witness. With the union of the Methodist Churches in 1898, a new journal The Methodist Leader was established and Youngman served as editor for over twenty years in two periods.

Youngman was recognised as the elder statesman and father of Methodism in Qld. Following his death in 1927, his contribution to the life of the church was acknowledged with the establishment of the Dr Youngman Memorial Sites Fund and a bursary for theological students.

Queensland Methodist Times, 14 April 1927; Methodist Church of Australasia, Queensland Conference Minutes 1899-1928; R S C Dingle, Annals of Achievement: a century of Queensland Methodism 1847-1947

THOM BLAKE