Nathaniel Dawes
- Christened: 8 Sep 1843, Rye, East Sussex England
- Marriage (1): Georgina Frances
- Died: 14 Sep 1910, Worcestershire, Inkberrow England at age 67
Noted events in his life were:
• source. Jenny Stubbs
• fact. Notes for NATHANIEL DAWES:
NATHANIEL DAWES
The first bishop, Nathaniel Dawes was born in Rye, Sussex on July 24th, 1843. He was a son of the Town Clerk of Rye and third in a family of nine. After a promising beginning as a civil engineer, he built Blackfriar's Bridge, he went to Oxford at the age of 25 to read for Holy Orders.
He was made deacon in 1871 and ordained priest in 1872. After serving a curacy at S. Peter's Vauxhall and an incumbency at S. Mary's Charter house, London, he came as Rector of South Brisbane and Archdeacon of Brisbane in 1886.
He was appointed Co-adjutor Bishop of Brisbane and consecrated bishop in S. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney on 1st May (Feast of S. Philip and S. James) 1889. Dawes had the distinction of being the first Bishop consecrated in Australia.
His area of episcopal oversight as Coadjutor of Brisbane included the Darling Downs and later Rockhampton. He accepted the title of Honorary Rector of Rockhampton and in 1892, with the formation of the new Diocese of Rockhampton, was elected the first Bishop.
The new Diocese consisted of the parishes of Rockhampton, Blackall, Springsure, Clermont, Mount Morgan and Gladstone. North Rockhampton was to be added a year later and the centres of Aramac Muttaburra and Barcaldine were being worked as mission areas by Archdeacon Lester from Longreach.
Bishop Dawes has the distinction of being the person to conceive the idea of a group of mission priests working the western parts of the Diocese, after the style of the Universities Mission to Central Africa, the Cambridge Mission to Delhi and the Oxford Mission to Calcutta. It was he who convinced Bishop Westcott of Durham of the viability of the idea and as a result the birth of the Bush Brotherhoods of the Australian Church took place.
He installed the first Bush Brother,
George Halford, in Longreach on Holy Cross Day (14th September) 1897. The Brotherhood of S. Andrew was to continue part of the Diocese until the second world war. The Brotherhoods were enormously influential in the Australian Church right up until the end of the] 960's.
Dawes resigned with failing health in 1908 and returned to England where he died on 14th September, 1910.
From A short history of the Cathedral Church of S. Paul the Apostle with a guide to the major features of the building by the Venerable R.H.H. Philp, Archdeacon of Rockhampton 1983
• Residence. 1881 census was living at St Marys Vicarage Goswell Road London, Middlesex, England
Nathaniel married Georgina Frances. (Georgina Frances was born in 1859 in Tilehurst Reading, Berkshire England.)
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