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The Redmond Memorial in Leura Mall
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Robert Alexander Redmond was born on
April 6, 1869 in Northern Ireland, the son of Samuel Redmond, farmer of
Slievenaboley in County Down and Catherine (Piddock). In 1896 aged 27, he
entered divinity studies at Assembly’s College, Belfast, the theological
college for the Presbyterian Church in Northern Ireland. In his final year he
was awarded the blue ribbon of the college: the Magill Bursary for pulpit
eloquence. He graduated BA in 1898, and received his licence to preach in 1901.
Rev Redmond was ordained on November 6, 1900 in First Broughshane congregation,
one of the largest country congregations in Ulster, where he spent the next two
years. During this time he applied himself to his work with such diligence that
his health began to suffer and he applied for leave to travel to Australia to
rest and recuperate. It appears from his marriage certificate, that he may have
first gone to Scotland where he married his wife Sarah Wilson.
Rev Redmond travelled initially to New Zealand but came to NSW in 1904 with his
wife Sarah (Wilson) and daughter Molly, and was appointed by the Home Mission
Committee of the Presbyterian Church to minister to the Parish of Leura -
Wentworth Falls. In 1905 he was inducted into the combined Presbyterian Churches
of Leura and Wentworth Falls; and as a sign of his growing community
involvement, was also listed as a founding member of the Katoomba &
Leura Tourist Association when their inaugural guidebook was issued in the same
year.
Widely
regarded for his oratory; the power, the wit and the eloquence of the Irish
rector could move an audience to laughter and tears, and they would come again
and again to listen spellbound as he preached. Eloquence that was also believed
to have contributed to the success of the record fundraising effort of ₤200 for
extensions to the original 1898 sandstone church in Leura. In fact such was the
popularity of his sermons that even after the Leura church was enlarged to
twice its original size, it was often unable to accommodate the overflow
congregation that flocked to his services to listen spellbound to his words. A
congregation that included many Sydney residents with holiday homes in the
Mountains, as well as those staying in guest houses, for whom a stirring
Redmond sermon was among the highlights of their stay.
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Panoramic photo of Leura Mall showing the Redmond memorial at the intersection
of Megalong Street (left) and St David's Presbyterian Church centre right |
Rev Redmond was actively involved in the establishment of a golf club in Leura
and was one of the first directors of the original company. When that company
went out of business he set about raising capital for a new company. In an
unpublished history of the Leura Golf Club, it states that 'Rev R A Redmond
canvassed Sydney businessmen as well as local residents and his untiring
efforts resulted in the amount of three thousand four hundred pounds being
raised'. At the first general meeting of the Golf Links Estate held in 1909 he
was elected a director, although he resigned the position later that same year.
However the health concerns that had prompted his trip to Australia again
surfaced and in September 1911 he underwent surgery for stomach cancer, from
which he never recovered and died quietly on November 11, 1911, aged 42. The
official cause of death is listed as carcinoma of the stomach and exhaustion
over a period of seven months. His wife and daughter were away visiting Ireland
at the time of his death and there is no record of their returning to
Australia.
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Interior of St David's Presbyterian church in Leura Mall
where Rev Redmond preached, lost in the 1957 bushfires |
The church in Leura was created in agreement
with the Methodists and Congregationalists, who agreed to ‘confine their
activities to Katoomba’. Although this rather artificial division worked
amicably for a decade, eventually the increase of population compelled them to
look after their own people in Katoomba. On 9 January 1911 a meeting in
Katoomba declared that ‘the Presbyterian residents in Katoomba deem that the
time has come for the establishment of a Presbyterian church’ and a committee
of four was set up, consisting of the local minister, the Rev. R.A. Redmond,
the prominent Katoomba doctor, Alexander Allan, J. Nimmo and L. Duff. Later in
1911 vacant land on the corner of Waratah and Lurline Streets was purchased and
the local people decided to proceed to build ‘a substantial and ornate church’.
Redmond had died in the course of 1911 and the building was to be called the
Redmond Memorial Church.
Following
his death, a public subscription was launched to raise funds for a memorial in
Leura Mall, on which the inscription reads:
Erected as a
mark of esteem to the late
Rev R A
Redmond, BA,
by the
residents of Leura,
November
11th, 1911
The Blue
Mountains Echo newspaper recorded the funeral on November 17, 1911:
By the death of Rev. R.
A. Redmond - news of which was received in town on Saturday - Leura loses one
of her foremost citizens, and the Presbyterian Church a most eloquent and able
preacher. The deceased gentleman had been associated in all movements for the
advancement of the district, and his demise at so early an age will cause a
vacancy difficult indeed to fill. A large number of representative townsfolk
paid their last tribute to his memory on Monday when the funeral took place at
Wentworth Falls. A well-worded reference to his untimely death was made by the
Rev. W. Ellis at the Anglican Church on Sunday last. The hymn, “'Now the
Laborer's Task is O'er”, was rendered by the choir, and at the evening service,
Mr Inman played The Dead March in Saul.
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Rev. Redmond's grave in Wentworth Falls Cemetery
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The obituary
in the Blue Mountains Echo reads as follows:
Dead! And there's many
a man could have been better spared, was the general verdict when the news
flashed through from the city hospital that Rev. Redmond, the popular
Presbyterian Pastor of Leura, had paid life's penalty - the victim of a malignant
growth, which, for the past year, had caused him trouble.
His death was not
unexpected. It was well-known that the good man was booked for his last long
journey, but nevertheless, a deep gloom settled over both centres when it was
known that his spirit had fled. Rev. Redmond was a man of strong personality.
He was a cultured and convincing preacher, and worked wonders for his Church in
both Leura and Wentworth Falls. Blessed with a heart as big as a house, he had
a large fund of sympathy for human frailties, and his good deeds, performed in
every instance with almost apologetic secrecy, will live for ever with
Leuraites. He was a happy combination of human and divine, and was beloved by
all denominations on the Mountains.
About a month ago he
went to Sydney to undergo an operation. Although the surgeon's skill was
successful, the sufferer never rallied, and on Saturday morning he was summoned
to meet his Masses, for Whom he had laboured so loyally in this Vale. The
funeral cortege started from Messrs Woods' Funeral Parlour, Sydney, at 7.45 am
on Monday, and was entrained at 8.27 am for Wentworth Falls, several ministers
and other friends accompanying it. At various stations en route, many of the
deceased minister's co-Presbyters joined the train. On arrival at Wentworth
Fails, a large number of people from his late charge and district were
sorrowfully waiting.
The Right Reverend, the
Moderator of the State General Assembly (R. Kay, M.A.,), who had travelled from
Germanton, joined with the Rev. James McKee, Moderator of deceased's
Presbytery, headed the procession. These were followed by the members of the
Presbytery, the Rev. Steel, M.A., J. Paterson, A. Dandie, W. R. Milne, H.
Wilson, R. B. Garner and the Rev. Prof. Clouston and Rev. J. J. Gilmore.
The Church at Wentworth
Falls was overfilled with a sorrowful congregation. The suitable music was
kindly arranged for by Rev. Mr Robison, C.E. Minister, whose organist
officiated. Within the Church, where the coffin, covered with beautiful
wreaths, rested, the Rev. J. McKee presided, prayers were offered by the Right
Rev., the Moderator and Rev. J. Paterson, and the lesson was read by Rev. R.
Steel. Upon leaving for the cemetery, the Ministers formed a double line,
between which the coffin was borne to the hearse, and the procession, largest
and most solemn ever seen at Wentworth Falls, wended its way to the last
resting place of mortality. Here reverently the Rev J. McKee committed the body
to the ground, which loving thought had beautifully carpeted and lined with
ferns and white flowers.
The resurrection
lessons were read by the Rev. J. J Gilmore, and prayer was offered by Rev. H.
Wilson. The Rev. Professor Clouston pronounced an eulogy on the beloved
Minister, whose mortal remains were now consigned to the tomb. He referred to
his success as a student and as a pastor of one of the largest and most
important Churches in Ulster before threatening sickness urged him to come to
Sunny New South Wales. He testified, as they all knew, to his success at Leura
and Wentworth Falls, the Church at each place being a monument to his
earnestness. Though dead, he would still speak to them, for the memory of one
so singularly gifted and of such happy nature would remain green. Before the
benediction was pronounced by Rev. W. R. Milne, it was announced that the Rev.
J. J. Gilmore, a long-time friend of the late Mr Redmond, would conduct
memorial services at Leura and Wentworth Falls on Sunday, 19th November. Mr W.
Wood, Financial Secretary, and Rev. R. Steel made the arrangements for the
funeral.
***
There are actually four local memorials to Rev Redmond: a wing in the Leura
Fairways retirement village on land formerly held by Leura Golf Club was named
the Robert Alexander Redmond Wing, a plaque on the wall of St Andrew’s Church
at Wentworth Falls, a stained glass window in the former Presbyterian church in
Katoomba, and the obelisk in Leura Mall. There is also a larger reminder of Rev
Redmond in the form of the Katoomba Presbyterian Church on the corner of
Waratah and Lurline Streets, which was built on land purchased with funds of
₤500 he had raised for the purpose before his death. The church cost ₤2,000 to
build and was opened on 25 January 1914. Subsequently a Church Hall was built
for ₤600 and a manse purchased for ₤2,500.
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| St David's Presbyterian Church, Leura Mall in the 1950s |
The Redmond obelisk was designed by E P Andreas of Leuralla "in the form
of an obelisk in freestone, upon a blue stone base, bearing upon the apex two
bracket lamps". A committee of ladies, including Mrs Andreas, was asked to
choose a suitable site, probably in the Mall. The obelisk was originally
located at the intersection of the Mall with Megalong Street and held two
small, rather dim, copper lamps on brackets. The Echo newspaper complained as
early as 1913 that "from a utilitarian point of view, it is very nearly a
failure, the old lamp post adjacent disseminating more light to the acre than
the monument does to the square inch". As a result, in 1914, the twin
lamps were replaced with a "single modern lamp of high candle power".
The lamps appear to have been removed at the time it was relocated to its
present location on the median strip around 1930.
It now stands opposite the old Post Office building in Leura Mall, on a grassy
bank among the flowering cherry trees in Spring; where picnickers and tourists
relax, enjoying the sunshine. Few if any noticing the now weathered,
ornate stone column, dedicated to the young, fervent Irish preacher once so
beloved by his flock.
References:
* Ye Are
God’s Building, a centenary history of St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church,
Wentworth Falls NSW, 1905-2005, by Eve Sinclair, 2006.
* Blue
Mountains Echo newspaper, November 17, 1911
Acknowledgement:
Prof L S
Kirkpatrick, Union Theological College, Belfast, correspondence 2009.
John Merriman, Local Studies Librarian
Blue
Mountains City Library, 2010
