William Jeffries (minister)

Jeffries was born in Fairfield, Liverpool, where his father was a prominent Methodist and his mother a daughter of a Captain Williams of the Royal Navy.

[2] He was educated at the Liverpool Collegiate school and became interested in Methodism at an early age, and was accepted as a candidate for the Wesleyan Methodist ministry at the British Conference of 1869.

He preached and ministered in the Blackburn circuit, England, for twenty years — at Welshpool, Mold, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Tunbridge Wells, Derby, Oldham, and Stockport,[3] before in 1889 requesting and receiving a posting to Australia, taken in the hope of the warmer climate being beneficial to the health of his wife.

[2] His first appointment in South Australia was to Kadina in early 1898,[5] but was only there a year before he was urgently transferred to Broken Hill, where the Methodist church was in deep trouble.

[3] On 8 January 1922 an In Memoriam service was held at the Kent Town church in his honour, led by Rev.

The ethical side of a question always appealed to him, and he was ever a moderating force in matters where difference of opinion arose.

His courage, his geniality, his wisdom in counsel made him a conspicuous figure in dealing with the business side of Church affairs, and he never under the stress of keenest controversy lost sight of the highest spiritual interests which were involved.