SERVICE TO CHURCH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21899, 7 September 1934, Page 13

SERVICE TO CHURCH

VEN. R. H. COLE'S PEATH ARCHDEACON OF TARANAK! WORK IN MANY LANDS The death occurred in Auckland yesterday of the Ven. Robert Henry Cole, formerly Archdeacon of Taranaki. He had a varied ministerial career, and served the Anglican Church in many parts of the Empire. He was born in Liverpool in 18G0, and svas the eldest son of the late Henry Brougham Cole, barrister of that city. From his earliest years Archdeacon Cole was determined to be a missionary, and was educated for missionary work at St. Paul's College, Lincolnshire, and later at St. Augustine's College, Canterbury. He was ordained deacon in 1883 by the Archbishop of Canterbury in Canterbury Cathedral, and went to- Tasmania as chaplain to the Bishop-of Tasmania, by whom he was ordained priest in

Hobart in 1884. After a period at Launceston he returned to England in 1886, and worked for some time as one of the curates of the great church of All Saints, Middlesbrough, under the famous vicar, Father Burn. Still later he went to Canaca as curate of St. Matthew's Church, Quebec, where he contracted two serious illnesses that shattered his health for the remainder of his life. After two years in Quebec, Archdeacon Cole resumed his theological studies in 1890 at the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, where he obtained the B.D. degree in 1891. After this he took up law at the University of Toronto, oblaining the degrees of LL.B. and B.C.L. in 1895, and D.C.I/, in 1901. From 1896 to 1901 he was successively precentor and canon of Bermuda Cathedral. Coming , to New Zealand for health reasons, he first made his home in Auckland, and was appointed Archdeacon of Taranaki in 1903 and superintendent of home missions for the diocese of Auckland in the following year. Both these positions he held until 1912, when he retired for reasons of health, and in 1919 he went to live in England. Last March Archdeacon and Mrs. Cole returned to Auckland, accompanied by two of their daughters, Misses G. and D. Cole. The third daughter is Mrs. Dudley Button, who lives in England. A service will be held at St. Paul's Church this morning nnd the funeral will be at New Plymouth to-morrow.