The ReverendFrederick Vicary Pratt (9 April 1870 – 25 April 1932) was anAustralian-bornCongregational churchminister who served as chairman of the State Congregational Unions ofNew South Wales (1906–07),South Australia (1909-10) andVictoria (1914–15).[1] He maintained that Australians could hold their own against the world in art, scholarship and sport and believed that Australia would at some time produce a national religious reformer attuned to local conditions.[2]
Pratt was born atPetersham, New South Wales, the seventh child of William Pratt, an English-bornpharmacist. He was educated atNewington College commencing in 1883[3] and in 1888 he won the Wigram Allen Scholarship, endowed bySirGeorge Wigram Allen, for general proficiency. At the end of 1888 Pratt was named Dux of the college and received the Schofield Scholarship.[4] He went up to the University of Sydney and in 1889 graduated as aBachelor of Arts in 1892 and aMaster of Arts in 1897 with first-class honours in Latin and the university gold medal for logic and mental philosophy.[5] After visiting the other colonies and New Zealand as the travelling secretary of theStudent Christian Movement, Pratt studied theology atCamden College and was ordained in 1897. He married Agnes Elizabeth Waddell in the year of his ordination.[6]
He served as a minister at theKatoomba, New South Wales, Congregational Church from 1897 to 1907 and theAngaston, South Australia, Congregational Church from 1907 until 1910. He moved to Victoria as minister of Wyclif Congregational Church inSurrey Hills serving from 1910 until 1916 when he went toBrisbane, Queensland. He returned to Sydney and the Vaucluse church in 1917 and Hunters Hill in 1918 before a three-year ministry inDavey StreetHobart, Tasmania. Pratt's final ministry was at the Roseby Memorial Church inMarrickville, New South Wales from 1928 until his death in 1932. He was survived by his wife, daughter and four sons.[7]
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| Preceded by | Schofield Scholarship Dux of Newington College 1888 | Succeeded by |
