Major Cyril Bavin OBE | |
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Born | 1878 Nelson, New Zealand |
Died | 20 February 1956 Brighton, England |
Nationality | Australian |
Education | Wesleyan Theological Institution |
Occupation |
Methodist Missionary Migration advocate |
Spouse(s) | Vera Daphne (née Lovejoy) |
Children | 2 Sons & 2 Daughters |
Parent(s) | Emma (née Buddle) and The Rev. Rainsford Bavin |
Cyril Bavin OBE (1878 – 20 February 1956) was a New Zealand-born Australian Methodist minister and missionary to Fiji who became General Secretary to the YMCA Migration Department and Honorary Secretary of the Migration Bureau of the Overseas League based in London. He was an advocate of mass migration from Britain to Canada, Australia and New Zealand both as a way to alleviate poverty in the mother country and as a means of building up the economy of these countreis.
Cyril Bavin was born in Nelson, New Zealand, and was one of nine children of the Rev. Rainsford Bavin, a Methodist minister from Lincolnshire, England, and his New Zealand-born wife Emma, née Buddle. His siblings were: Edna (Mrs Charles Lack); Jessie (Mrs Ambrose Fletcher); Sir Thomas Bavin; Gertrude (Mrs William Parker); Horace Bavin; Florence Bavin (Mrs Ernest Warren); Lancelot Bavin; and Dora Bavin (Mrs Leslie Allen). Bavin Snr arrived in New Zealand in 1867 and was appointed to Christchurch. He married in 1867 and was then appointed to Timaru, Kaiapoi and Wanganui. Cyril was born during his parents time in Nelson and then lived in Wellington and Auckland. His family moved to Sydney from Auckland in 1889 and his father took charge of the William St Church.
In 1896 Bavin was invited by the Methodist Episcopal Church in India to join the staff of the mission high school at Poona prior to entering the ministry. After returning from India he became a student at the Wesleyan Theological Institution which was then based in the grounds of Newington College. After his ordination in 1903 Bavin undertook mission work in Fiji. In 1914, Bavin contributed a chapter, The Indian in Fiji, to the book, A century in the Pacific, edited by James Colwell with an introduction by William Henry Fitchett.