Roland St John

Roland TyrwhittStJohn MBE (1914–1991) was Registrar of the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane from 1946 to 1974. The diocese comprised some 300 churches and covered an area of half a million square kilometres, reaching north to Bundaberg and south and west to the State borders. As its 'business manager' he restored its finances, improved its administration and guided it through a challenging period of expansion. As a leading Anglican layman his influence reached beyond the diocese to the wider Church.

Born at Boggabri NSW on 16 December 1914, 'Roley' was one of eight children of the Revd Canon Frederick de Port St John, a Church of England parish priest in rural NSW, and his wife Hannah Phoebe Mabel (Pyrke). Roland's uncle Revd Harold B St John was also a Church of England parish priest. Roland's younger brother was Edward St John QC MP. Their grandfather Henry St John was a pioneer of Rawdon Islands NSW and a nephew of Revd Ambrose St John, who converted to Roman Catholicism with his friend and colleague Cardinal John Henry Newman. Henry St John was a great-great grandson of the 10th Baron St John of Bletso.

Educated at Armidale High School, Roland gained the degrees of BEc (Syd) and BA (Qld) by part-time studies and was an Associate of the Australian Society of Accountants. In accounting exams in 1952 he topped Australasia in Final Auditing with a mark of 94%. After working at Bank of NSW branches in several country towns he was transferred to the Bank's head office in Sydney. At the outbreak of war in 1939 he enlisted in the University Regiment. When the war extended to the Pacific in 1941 he volunteered for the 2nd AIF and served in Irian Jaya and New Britain, reaching the rank of Captain before returning to civilian life in 1946.

At the age of 32 he was appointed by Archbishop Reginald Halse to be Diocesan Registrar, Brisbane, at a time when the diocese had been in a 'perilous financial position' for some years. In his history of the Church of England in Queensland Dr K Rayner wrote:

A member of a well-known New South Wales clerical family, St John brought to his new position both a thorough knowledge of church affairs and also financial and administrative ability of rare quality. He recognised what many business men on church committees had not realised, that even in its business affairs the church could not always use the same methods as commercial enterprises, because its aims were different.

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