The Reverend The Reverend (abbreviated as The Revd, The Rev'd or The Rev) is an honorific style (form of address), style given to certain (primarily Western Christian, Western) Christian clergy and Christian minister, ministers. There are sometimes differen ...

Colin Graham Scrimgeour (30 January 1903 – 16 January 1987), also known as Uncle Scrim or Scrim, was a New Zealand

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

Minister and broadcaster.

Life and ministry

Born in

Wairoa Wairoa is the largest town in the Wairoa District and the northernmost town in the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located on the northern shore of Hawke Bay at the mouth of the Wairoa River and to the west of Mā ...

, Hawke's Bay, he entered the Methodist Ministry in 1923 and concentrated on social work. He was

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

Methodist City Missioner for six years. After broadcasting from Radio Station 1ZR, run by the firm of Lewis Eady, he established the Friendly Road Broadcasting Station 1ZB in 1933, associated with the Friendly Road church ( Aunt Daisy broadcast on these stations, and they supported the Labour Party). Shortly before the 1935 election on Sunday 24 November, an address by Uncle Scrim was expected to urge listeners to vote Labour but was jammed by the

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

. The minister in charge of the P&T Department,

Adam Hamilton Adam Hamilton (20 August 1880 – 29 April 1952) was a New Zealand politician. He was the first non-interim Leader of the National Party during its early years in Opposition. Early life Hamilton was born in Forest Hill, near Winton, Southla ...

, was blamed although he denied responsibility. As a close friend of

Michael Joseph Savage Michael Joseph Savage (23 March 1872 – 27 March 1940) was an Australian-born New Zealand politician who served as the 23rd prime minister of New Zealand, heading the First Labour Government of New Zealand, First Labour Government from 1935 ...

and John A. Lee of the First Labour Government which came to power in 1935, Scrimgeour became Controller of the government-run National Commercial Broadcasting Service.

Peter Fraser Peter Fraser (; 28 August 1884 – 12 December 1950) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 24th prime minister of New Zealand from 27 March 1940 until 13 December 1949. Considered a major figure in the history of the New Zealand Lab ...

, an enemy of Scrimgeour, succeeded Savage as Prime Minister after the latter's death in 1940. In the 1943 elections, Scrimgeour stood against Fraser in as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

candidate. He performed so well that Fraser (hitherto expected to win his seat comfortably) "only sneaked back on a minority vote".

Erik Olssen Erik Newland Olssen (born 14 December 1941) is a New Zealand historian whose research focuses on the linkages between social structures, politics, and the world of ideas at four spatial domainsthe local, provincial, national and global. His ea ...

, '' John A. Lee'', University of Otago Press, Dunedin, 1977, p. 189

Entertainment – radio and television career

Scrimgeour was suspended and then sacked in 1943. He moved to Australia, and worked in radio and television there, helping establish the

Mercury Theatre The Mercury Theatre was an independent repertory theatre company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and producer John Houseman. The company produced theatrical presentations, radio programs and motion pictures. The Mercury also r ...

in Sydney, New South Wales with

Peter Finch Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch (28 September 191614 January 1977) was an English-Australian actor of theatre, film and radio. Born in London, he emigrated to Australia at the age of ten and was raised in Sydney, where he worked in vaudevi ...

. He also worked for a time in (

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

) China before he retired to New Zealand in 1968.

Awards

Scrimgeour was awarded the

King George VI Coronation Medal The King George VI Coronation Medal was a commemorative medal, instituted to celebrate the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Issue This medal was awarded as a personal souvenir of King George VI's coronation. It was awarded to th ...

in 1937 and the Chinese Star of Friendship (NZ Roll of Honour, p. 949).

Legacy

Mervyn Thompson Mervyn Garfield Thompson (14 June 1935 – 10 July 1992) was a New Zealand playwright and theatre director. He was one of the founders of Court Theatre (NZ), Court Theatre in Christchurch, an artistic director of Downstage Theatre in Wellingto ...

wrote a 1976 "song play" about the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, ''Songs to Uncle Scrim''.

Notes

References

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