VETERAN CHURCHMAN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 625, 30 March 1929, Page 7

VETERAN CHURCHMAN

THE REV. F. B. MEYER DEAD (United Service) LONDON, Thursday. The death has occurred of the Rev. F. B. Meyer, aged 82. Dr. Frederick Brotherton Meyer was born in 1547, and educated at Brighton College and Regent’s Park Bapist College. He became assistant to the Rev. C. M. Birrell at Liverpool in IS7O, rniniser of he Baptist Cliapel, York, in 1872, and of the Victoria Road Church, Leicester, where Melbourne Hall was built for him, in IS7B. From 1888 o 1892 and from 1909 to 1915 he was in charge of Regent’s Park Chapel, nd from 1892 to 1907 and from 1915 to 1921 of Christ Church, Westminster Bridge Road, London, where he succeeded Dr. Newman Plall. While he was at Leicester he went regularly to the prison gate for 10 years to help released prisoners. For many years he devoted money and time to clearing out houses of ill-fame in South London. He also stopped prize-fights, one of the most notable instances being his agitation leading to a ban on the Johnson-Wells fight. For 10 years he was leader of the Free Church Council of England and Wales. He was president of the Baptist Union in 1906, and of the National Federation of Free Churches in 1904 and 1920. A popular preacher, he had delivered sermons all over the world. By the time he was SO his books had attained a sale of 2,500,000.