From Samuel Way at Montefiore, North Adelaide, Australia, to Lewis Court, Care of [Digory Joseph] Rounsfell, 27 Richmond Road, Exeter, England.
He sent several packets of papers and photographs etc by the English mail last week for display at Court's exhibition of Bible Christian antiquities. Another packet is being posted this evening, containing the following:.
- copy of a water colour portrait of Way's mother, which was painted at about the time of her marriage in 1833.
- the most recent photograph of Lady [Katherine] Way, taken a few years before her death.
- some newspapers re the life of ?Shah Albyn.
- report by Revd. G. M. Shapley re G. M. C. A work among Australian troops in Egypt. Mr Shapley is a young Methodist minister, son of [William Thomas] Shapley, who is well known in Exeter and a former Bible Christian minister.
- a newspaper cutting re Revd. Joseph Foster's jubilee.
- the last annual report of the Shebbear College Old Boys' Association.
- letter from Colonel ?Niall, Commanding Officer of the Light Horse in Egypt to Doctor ?Tom. He has since accompanied his regiment to Gallipoli. The Colonel is a fine example of the kind of man turned out from Way College. Way has received very good accounts of the work which he did in Egypt and Gallipoli.
Way wishes that he could accompany this letter to the Exeter Conference.
Notes .
- Sir Samuel James Way (1836-1916) was the son of a leading Bible Christian minister James Way, who pioneered the work of his Church in South Australia. Samuel Way himself was born in Portsmouth, England and educated at Shebbear College. He joined his family in Australia in 1853. He was called to the Bar in 1861 and was made a Queen's Council in 1871. Five years later Way was appointed Chief Justice and later became Lieutenant Governor. In 1899 he was made a baronet and was the first Australian to be nominated to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Way was a leading figure in the Bible Christian Church, serving as a delegate to the Washington Ecumenical Methodist Conference in 1891. He was a strong advocate of Methodist union. Source: Encyclopedia of World Methodism (1974)
- >William Thomas Shapley was a prominent Australian Bible Christian minister. He entered the ministry in 1889 and served in a number of circuits until his transfer to the South Australian Methodist Conference in 1901. Source: Beckerlegge
- Joseph Foster (c.1854-1924) was born in the North-east of England. He was educated at Ranmoor College and entered the Methodist New Connexion ministry in 1875. He served in a large number of circuits around the country and was Conference Secretary in 1901 and President of the Conference in 1906. Source: Beckerlegge
- Digory Joseph Rounsfell (1866-1927) was the son of one Bible Christian minister and the brother of another. He was born in Barnstaple and was educated at Shebbear College. Converted at the age of eleven, he went into business for several years before entering the Bible Christian ministry in 1890. He enjoyed tremendous success as an Evangelist at the Royal Victoria Hall and Waterloo Road Chapel in London, where he worked for fifteen years. Rounsfell was later stationed in Brooklands in Bristol where under his supervision the membership rose from 250 to over 400. Source: Beckerlegge and U M Magazine 1927, pp.210-212