St Clair George Alfred Donaldson (11 February 1863 – 7 December 1935) was an English Anglican bishop. He was the firstAnglican Archbishop of Brisbane,Australia.
Donaldson was the third son ofSir Stuart Alexander Donaldson and his wife Amelianée Cowper and was born inLondon,England. The family lived atBere Court nearPangbourne.
Donaldson was educated atEton, where he rowed in the eight, and atTrinity College, Cambridge.[1] He narrowly missed representing Cambridge in the 1883 boat race, when having been selected stroke of the crew he fell ill and was forbidden to row by the doctors.[2] At Eton, he was co-editor, withM. R. James of theChronicle, for which they were paid fifteen shillings every two weeks.[3] Their tutorH. E. Luxmoore took them to Florence during the spring holidays of 1882.[4] His younger brother, Seton, died in a boating accident that same year. After graduating from Eton, he, his brother Stuart,M. R. James andSydney James (priest) travelled to Switzerland.[5] In the spring of 1883, he travelled toGreece withM. R. James,Sydney James (priest),Walter Durnford, andCecil Baring, 3rd Baron Revelstoke.
He graduated B.A. in 1885 with afirst class degree inclassics and obtained a first class intheology in 1887.
Donaldson was ordaineddeacon in May 1888 andpriest in 1889. After a short while as a curate at Bethnal Green he was a domestic chaplain to archbishop Benson from 1888 to 1891. In 1891 Donaldson became vicar ofSt Mary's, Hackney Wick, and succeededM. R. James as head of theEton Mission from 1891 until 1900.[6] He was in November 1901 appointedRector ofHornsey,[7] and in October the following year also asRural Dean of Hornsey,[8] serving from 1902 to 1904. At only 41 years of age he was chosen to be Bishop of Brisbane, was consecrated on 28 October 1904, and arrived atBrisbane on 19 December 1904. On St Thomas Day, 21 December 1904, he was enthroned asBishop of Brisbane inSt Luke's Church of England inCharlotte Street,Brisbane, as the diocese's cathedral had not yet been completed.[9]
When Donaldson began his episcopate he found that over £30,000 was on hand for the building ofSt John's Cathedral. He immediately set to work to raise the remaining necessary funds, and six years later the cathedral was consecrated. In 1905 the five dioceses inQueensland andNew Guinea were formed into a province, and Donaldson became Archbishop of Brisbane. He interested himself especially in the development of the theological college, in religions instruction in schools, and in the founding of church schools. He gave much time and thought to the diocesan war memorial, which eventually took the form ofSt Martin's Hospital near the cathedral. About £100,000 was raised for this including a gift of £1000 from Donaldson himself. Donalson gave attention to moral causes of industrial unrest and the 'inward spiritual significance of the Labour movement', and he offered to mediate in the1912 Brisbane general strike. Donaldson spoke strongly on the question of justice to theaborigines, urging that a large tract of land should be handed to them which whites should not be allowed to occupy. During his episcopate of 17 years the number of clergy increased from 55 to well over 100.
In 1921 he was appointedBishop of Salisbury, and on his return to England was pronounced byArthur Benson to be "a very fine, simple-minded, robust, sensible prelate". At Salisbury as at Brisbane he became the trusted friend of his clergy and no parish was too isolated to be visited. He did work in convocation and was for many years chairman of the board of missions.
Donaldson had a difficult task as chairman of the joint committee of the Canterbury convocation on "The Church and Marriage", which sat from 1931 until 1935. In 1933 he was appointed by the KingPrelate of the Order of St Michael and St George. He held the honorary degrees of D.D. of Oxford and Cambridge, and D.C.L. Durham. After leaving Australia he retained his interest in his old diocese and continued to make monetary contributions to its needs. In his will £4000 was left to endowment funds of the Brisbane diocese. He died suddenly atSalisbury on 7 December 1935 aged 72. He was unmarried.
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| Preceded by | Bishop of Brisbane 1904–1905 | Succeeded by Himself as Archbishop of Brisbane |
| Preceded by Himself as Bishop of Brisbane | Archbishop of Brisbane 1905–1921 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Bishop of Salisbury 1921–1935 | Succeeded by |
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