[1] Coombs was born in New Windsor, England[2] or Marlborough, Wiltshire, the son of an ironmonger[2] or a banker,[3] and early attracted to the church.
Following an appeal from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts in 1846, Woodcock and James Pollitt left for missionary service in Australia.
The foundation stone was laid on 6 January 1858 but the bishop refused consecration of the building due to the trust-deed, which gave church trustees veto power over management decisions, where the Model Trust Deed vested decision-making in congregation and synod.
[4] The transept, which had been provided for by Hamilton, had its foundation stone laid on 4 December 1884, and the building was consecrated on 23 April 1895 by Bishop Kennion.
Coombs, in little short of 50 years had seen the church grow from an outpost in the bush to a centrepiece of a cultured community, a "Colonial Athens".
The east window, a lead-glass work depicting the Ascension by Herbert M. Smyrk at the Gawler studio of E. F. Troy[6] and unveiled on 4 May 1898, was dedicated to his memory.