Throughout 2015, to mark the centenary year of the ANZAC landing at Gallipoli, Revive will be publishing a series of articles highlighting the men who provided chaplaincy to those who served in WWI.
Rev Arthur Fry was born in South Australia in 1864 and was ordained into the Methodist church in 1887. He transferred to Western Australia in 1894 and was sent to York. After three years in York he served in Coolgardie, Geraldton, Perth and West Perth.
In 1911 he was appointed secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, a post he held for 16 Years. On 6 October 1916, at the age of 51, Rev Arthur Stephen Joyce Fry joined the Australian Army as a military chaplain. He sailed to England as a transport chaplain on the HMAT Suffolk.
Arthur returned from Military duty in November 1917 having visited many Australians in the Australian hospitals in England and France. On his return to Western Australia he was acting senior chaplain while Rev CA Jenkins was on duty overseas. He remained an army chaplain until 1936 and was awarded the Voluntary Defence Medal.
Rev Arthur S J Fry died in Albany, Western Australia on 17 June 1946.
Sheena Hesse