F. W. Boreham

Frank William Boreham OBE (3 March 1871, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England – 18 May 1959, Melbourne, Victoria) was a Baptist preacher best known in New Zealand, Australia, and England.

Life and career

Boreham's birth coincided with the end of the Franco-Prussian War. He could say in later life, "Salvoes of artillery and peals of bells echoed across Europe on the morning of my birth." He was one of 10 children.

Boreham heard the great American preacher Dwight L. Moody during his youth. On another occasion he was badly injured and spent considerable time in hospital recovering, nursed by a Roman Catholic woman who widened his insight of ecumenism. Boreham became a Baptist preacher after conversion to Christianity while working in London. He was probably the last student interviewed by Charles Spurgeon for entry into his Pastor's College.

After graduation, Boreham accepted a call to be the first minister at the Mosgiel Baptist Church, Dunedin, New Zealand, in March 1895 and there began his prolific writings, initially for the local newspaper. He was joined by his sweetheart Estella ("Stella") Cottee and they were married at Kaiapoi in 1896. They went on to have five children.

In 1906 he moved to Australia to be pastor at the Baptist Tabernacle in Hobart, Tasmania, where he was active in the multi-faith Council of Churches, serving six years as secretary and two as president. In 1916 he left for mainland Australia and churches in the Melbourne suburbs of Armadale and Kew.

He notionally retired in 1928 at age 57, but continued to preach and write, and made extended preaching tours to the USA and Britain in 1928 and again in 1936. In 1928 he was awarded an honorary doctor of divinity by McMaster University in Canada, and was appointed O.B.E. in 1954. During Billy Graham's evangelistic campaign in Australia in early 1959, Graham sought out Boreham for a discussion, due in great part to Boreham's widely read and respected writings.

Published works

Boreham wrote some 3,000 editorials that appeared weekly in the '' Hobart Mercury'' for 47 years between 1912 and 1959, and others in the '' Melbourne Age''. He was calling on these works for yet another book, with one article for each day of the year, when he died.

He published some 46 books with Epworth Press, the last ''The Tide Comes In'' in 1958, only months before his death. Many of these books received wide international acclaim. Most famous is his series of five books, published between 1920 and 1928, derived from the 125 sermons on the theme "Texts that Made History":

* ''A Bunch of Everlastings''
* ''A Handful of Stars''
* ''A Casket of Cameos''
* ''A Faggot of Torches''
* ''A Temple of Topaz''

List

*1891 ''Won to Glory'' (with foreword by F.B. Meyer)
*1902 ''Loose Leaves'' (travelogue)
*1903 ''From England to Mosgiel'' (travelogue)
*1903 ''The Whisper of God'' (The Baptist Pulpit series)
*1911 ''George Augustus Selwyn'' (biography)
*1912 ''The Luggage of Life''
*1914 ''Mountains in the Mist''
*1915 ''The Golden Milestone''
*1915 ''Mushrooms on the Moor''
*1916 ''Faces in the Fire''
*1917 ''The Other Side of the Hill''
*1918 ''The Silver Shadow''
*1919 ''The Uttermost Star''
*1920 ''A Bunch of Everlastings''
*1920 ''A Reel of Rainbow''
*1921 ''The Home of the Echoes''
*1922 ''A Handful of Stars''
*1922 ''Shadows on the Wall''
*1923 ''Rubble and Roseleaves''
*1924 ''A Casket of Cameos''
*1924 ''Wisps of Wildfire''
*1925 ''The Crystal Pointers''
*1926 ''A Faggot of Torches''
*1926 ''A Tuft of Comet's Hair''
*1927 ''The Nest of Spears''
*1928 ''A Temple of Topaz''
*1928 ''The Fiery Crags''
*1929 ''The Three Half Moons''
*1930 ''The Blue Flame''
*1930 ''An Arch of Roses''
*1931 ''When the Swans Fly High''
*1932 ''A Witch's Brewing''
*1933 ''The bachelors of Mosgiel''
*1933 ''The Drums of Dawn''
*1934 ''The Ivory Spires''
*1935 ''The Heavenly Octave''
*1935 ''Ships of Pearl''
*1936 ''The Passing of John Broadbanks''
*1939 ''I Forgot to Say''
*1940 ''My Pilgrimage'' (autobiography)
*1941 ''The Prodigal''
*1944 ''Boulevards of Paradise''
*1945 ''A Late Lark Singing''
*1948 ''Cliffs of Opal''
*1948 ''The Man Who Saved Gandhi'' (a short biography of J. J. Doke, republished in 2007 as ''Lover of Life'')
*1950 ''The Little Palace Beautiful''
*1951 ''Arrows of Desire''
*1953 ''My Christmas Book''
*1954 ''Dreams at Sunset''
*1954 ''In Pastures Green''
*1955 ''The Gospel of Robinson Crusoe''
*1956 ''The Gospel of Uncle Tom's Cabin''
*1958 ''The Tide Comes In''
*1961 ''The Last Milestone''

Edited compilations:
*''Second Thoughts''
*''The Chalice of Life''

In 2016, nearly 50 years after Boreham's death, John Broadbanks Publishing published two volumes of previously unpublished material: ''Nuggets of Romance'' and ''Slices of Infinity''. In addition, Pioneer Library and John Broadbanks Publishing are seeking to revive many of his out-of-print books.

The Heritage Collection of the Dunedin Public Libraries includes a Frank W. Boreham Collection of 72 titles, presently housed at the Mosgiel branch library.

Popular culture

Steven James references Boreham several times in ''Synapse''.

References

External links

'The Dr. F.W. Boreham Tribute Site'
* ttp://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/4636.htm 'So This is Boreham!' by Jeffrey S. Cranstonbr>Review of 'Lover of Life'

Electronic editions

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Boreham, Frank W
1871 births
1959 deaths
19th-century English Baptist ministers
20th-century Australian Baptist ministers
Australian Baptist theologians
Baptist writers
British emigrants to Australia
British expatriates in New Zealand
New Zealand Baptist ministers
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
People from Mosgiel
People from Royal Tunbridge Wells