Hammond, Thomas Chatterton

Person

Hammond, Thomas Chatterton

• Hammond, T.C.

1877-1961

Thomas Chatterton Hammond (1877-1961) was an active figure in theological and church life. He greatly contributed to the Protestant cause, firstly in Ireland, then in Australia. His greatest work was as principal of Moore Theological College,1936-1953. T.C. Hammond was born in Cork, Ireland on February 20, 1877. He was early groomed to endure hardship, but was deeply conscious of a call to christian ministry.(1) He left secular employment to attend Trinity College, Dublin, where he was awarded the Downes Prize in 1902; the Wray Prize in 1903; and won the gold medal in Philosophy. Hammond saw Philosophy as the handmaid of Theology, and Theology as the Queen of the Sciences. This determined his lifelong approach to Theology. He was ordained Deacon in 1903 and Priest in 1905 by the Archbishop of Dublin. He married Margaret McNay in January 1906. Their children were John Coleman; Thomas Chatterton; Charles Kemble; and Doris Masterson.(3) The first phase of Hammond's ministry was in Dublin, where he served the Church of St. Kevin as curate 1903-10, then as Rector 1910-1919. The second phase of ministry was as superintendent with the Irish Church Mission 1919-1929, and General superintendent 1929-1936, as well as being Chaplain to the Townsend St. Mission Church. These were years of strenuous activity, in which he preached and wrote incessantly in the cause of Irish Protestants. He received nearly 500 Roman Catholic converts, including 25 priests, into the Church of Ireland.(4) He won a new prestige for the I.C.M. In 1926 Hammond paid a visit to Australia and lectured on the prayer book in Gippsland and Bendigo. He impressed Mr.H.L. Tress of St. Paul's, Chatswood, a trustee of Thomas Moore's estate, who was instrumental in his appointment as Principal of Moore Theological College, and Rector of St.Philip's, Church Hill, in 1935. He arrived to take up the appointment in April 1936. After the death of Archdeacon Davies, there were only thirteen students at Moore College. The College buildings were in disrepair and there was a post-depression debt of 6000. Hammond's goal was to build a strong, virile college for the future. Academic standards were raised; the course was lengthened; three new wings were built; a Memorial Chapel consecrated; the staff doubled in strength; and student enrolment increased. More than two hundred men were ordained during his principalship, almost a third of the total number in the first hundred years of College history. His unrivalled scholarship as a theologian and his powers as an original thinker were invaluable assets. He resigned from Moore College at the end of 1953, but was still in office as Rector of St. Philip's at the close of his life.Bishop S.J. Kirkby died a few weeks after Archdeacon Davies in 1935, leaving St. Philip's Church vacant. The Moore Theological Ordinance of 1919 was amended so as to allow the new principal to hold office at the same time as the Rector of St. Philip's. Hammond was greatly respected for the faithful way he fulfilled his duties at the church, preaching right to the last Sunday before he died, 16th November, 1961. From the outset Hammond was in the forefront of Diocesan work, and was one of Archbishop Mowll's closest confidential advisers. In 1936 he became Rural Dean of Balmain; in 1939 he was elected a member of the Cathedral Chapter; in 1949 he was appointed an Archdeacon without Territorial Jurisdiction. He was outstanding on Synod, standing committees and played a major role in the debate and drafting of the Constitution of the Church in Australia. He was President of the Council of Churches in N.S.W.; Grandmaster of Orange Lodge; and President of Inter Varsity Fellowship. By his interstate travel, inter-denominational ministry, books, lectures, pamphlets, sermons and broadcasts he touched a constantly widening circle of men. Hammond's major books were: on theology, In Understanding Be Men (1936); on ethics, Perfect Freedom (1938); and on apologetics, Reasoning Faith (1943). In the words of Marcus Loane: "He was a man of massive intellect and noble capacity,generous, large-hearted, full of Irish wit and foible, with an irrepressible fund of humour and a strong masculine love of humanity; a great man whose like we may not see again."(7)
References:

1. His father died when he was 5, and he left school to start work at 14. Marcus Loane, Mark These Men, p. 71.
2. Marcus Loane, The Late Archdeacon T.C.Hammond, Societas, p. 20.
3. Pers. Com. with Charles Kemble Hammond.
4. Loane, op. cit.p. 20.
5. Loane, ibid. p.21.
6. Marcus Loane, A Centenary History of Moore Theological College, p. 139.
7. Loane, op.cit, p. 21.
   (This biography was written by Lee Holland for his 1985 finding aid of the T.C. Hammond collection)

Principal of Moore Theological College

Hammond, Charles Kimble (1910-2004)

Irish Church Missions (1849-)

Principal of Moore Theological College

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