Peerage Record – 20583

     Thomas Heathcote Bayley married Helen Kay Donaldson, daughter of Stuart Alexander Donaldson and Betty Cundale, on 27 July 1847.¹ He died in 1858.¹

     Edward C. Griffith married Helen Kay Donaldson, daughter of Stuart Alexander Donaldson and Betty Cundale, on 10 April 1860.¹ He died on 23 December 1871.¹

     Selina Beresford was born on 21 February 1859 at Hampstead, London, England^G.² She was the daughter of Colonel Francis Marcus Beresford and Elizabeth Green.^1,2 She married Brig.-Gen. Sir Hay Frederick Donaldson, son of Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson and Amelia Cowper, on 15 July 1884.¹ She died on 11 August 1938 at age 79.²
     She gained the rank of Lieutennat-Colonel between 1873 and 1888 in the 7th Surrey Rifles.² From 15 July 1884, her married name became Donaldson.¹

     Colonel Francis Marcus Beresford was born in August 1818 at Aylestone, Leicestershire, England^G.² He married, firstly, Elizabeth Green, daughter of George Green, on 20 September 1848 at St. Oswald Parish Church, Durham, County Durham, England^G.² He married, secondly, Eleanor Richardson on 2 June 1881 at St. George Hanover Square, London, England^G.² He died on 1 August 1890 at Cliftonthorpe, Ashby De La Zouch, Leicestershire, England^G.²
     He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Southwark between February 1879 and 1880.^1,2 He lived at Sheen House, Richmond, Surrey, England^G.³

     Rt. Rev. St. Clair George Alfred Donaldson was born on 11 February 1863 at London, England^G.² He was the son of Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson and Amelia Cowper.¹ He died on 7 December 1935 at age 72 at Salisbury, Wiltshire, England^G, unmarried.²
     He was educated at Eton College, Windsor, Berkshire, England^G.¹ He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge University, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England^G, in 1885 with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)¹ He was Resident Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury between 1888 and 1891.¹ He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge University, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England^G, in 1890 with a Master of Arts (M.A.)¹ He was the Rector between 1901 and 1904 at Hornsey, London, England^G.¹ He was Rural Dean of Hornsey between 1902 and 1904.¹ He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge University, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England^G, in 1904 with a Doctor of Divinity (D.D.)¹ He held the office of Bishop of Brisbane between 1904 and 1905.¹ He held the office of Archbishop of Queensland between 1905 and 1921.¹ He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law (D.C.L.) by Durham University, Durham, County Durham, England^G, in 1908.¹ He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity (D.D.) by Oxford University, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England^G, in 1920.¹ He held the office of Bishop of Salisbury between 1921 and 1935.¹ DONALDSON, ST CLAIR GEORGE ALFRED (1863-1935), Anglican archbishop, was born on 11 February 1863 in London, third son of Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson and his wife Amelia, née Cowper. He attended Eton and was foundation scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1885 with a first-class in classics; in 1887 he gained a first in theology. After training for the ministry at Wells Theological College, he was ordained deacon in 1888 and priest in 1889, was briefly curate at Bethnal Green, resident chaplain to the archbishop of Canterbury, E. W. Benson, in 1888-91, and headed the Eton Mission at Hackney Wick in 1891-1900. President of the London Junior Missionary Association, he then travelled in South Africa, India and Ceylon, and was rural dean of Hornsey in 1902-04. Chosen by the archbishop of Canterbury, R. T. Davidson, to succeed W. T. T. Webber as bishop of Brisbane, and enthroned there in December 1904, he became the first archbishop of Brisbane next year when the dioceses in Queensland and New Guinea were formed into a province. He held this office until 1921, his stature and influence helping to make his province the most cohesive in Australia.

Donaldson’s eminence was as a farsighted all-round churchman. Aiming at making Brisbane ‘the Antioch of Australia’, the jumping-off ground for missionary endeavours, he extended the Bush Brotherhood scheme, reorganized the church missionary societies, and showed particular solicitude for Aboriginals. Yarrabah Aboriginal Mission was one of many institutions to benefit from his private generosity (£3000 in 1918). He gave impetus to the building of St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane, and to the crusade (successful in the 1910 referendum) for religious teaching in state schools. He was a member of the Senate of the University of Queensland in 1916-21 and was largely responsible for establishing St John’s College. Nundah Theological College (later St Francis) began in 1907 and by 1921 over two-thirds of Brisbane’s clergy were Australian-trained. He was a strong advocate of autonomy for the Australian Church.

The Church’s impact he believed should be widespread: ‘Go for the enemy’s stronghold. The Queensland Club: the Trades Hall: the Race-course’. He directed attention to the underlying moral causes of industrial unrest and the ‘inward spiritual significance of the Labour movement’, and offered to mediate in the 1912 Brisbane strike. He improved inter-church relations, especially with the Greek Orthodox Church, but in February 1917, contrary to his usual detachment from sectarianism, he responded when challenged by Archbishop Duhig and gave examples of Roman Catholic actions he considered detrimental to national unity. Emphasizing that Christian patriotism demanded sacrifice, and that the financial burden of the war was falling on the wealthy while the workers were getting richer, he supported conscription. He sponsored the building of St Martin’s Hospital as a war memorial and promoted the League of Nations, criticizing Hughes’s scepticism towards it.

Donaldson’s intensely religious personal life was marked by evangelical simplicity, but his essential catholicism told against him in elections for the Australian primacy (1909) and the archbishopric of Melbourne (1921). Although not a quick thinker he could be a powerful preacher. Perhaps the bulk of the laity ‘were slow to catch fire from his own burning zeal’, as the Archbishop of Canterbury, C. G. Lang, wrote of him later, but Donaldson exerted a lasting influence on many of his clergy, particularly those on whom he most relied such as de Witt Batty and H. F. Le Fanu. A bachelor of striking presence, considerable charm and humour, he inspired deep affection in those who knew him well, but his fundamental reserve occasionally made him seem aloof and he was most at ease in the upper strata of society. Lord Chelmsford, with whom he shared a love of music, was a close friend. He returned several times to England and received the honorary degrees of D.D. from Cambridge in 1904 and Oxford in 1920, and of D.C.L. from Durham in 1908.

From 1921 until his death there on 7 December 1935 Donaldson was bishop of Salisbury, England, where an original feature of his episcopate was the attention paid to educated people detached from the Church. He was appointed prelate of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1933. Again much of his effort was concentrated on missionary work; he was chairman of the Missionary Council in 1921-33. Donaldson retained Australian friendships and interests, and helped in the choice of J. W. C. Wand as archbishop of Brisbane. His estate of £48,544, left mainly to relatives, included bequests of £4000 to endowment funds in Brisbane. The notes he left of his daily thoughts and prayers were posthumously published as A meditation on the Acts of the Apostles (London, 1937).

Select Bibliography

C. T. Dimont and F. de Witt Batty, St. Clair Donaldson (Lond, 1939); Parliamentary Debates (Queensland), 1912, p 263; British Australasian, 27 July 1916; Worker (Brisbane), 2 Mar 1912; Daily Mail (Brisbane), 27 Feb 1917; Sydney Morning Herald, 13 Oct 1921, 29 Jan 1923, 13 Dec 1935; Queenslander, 25 June, 23 Aug 1934; Courier Mail (Brisbane), 9 Dec 1935; ‘Obituary’, Times (London), 9 Dec 1935, pp 14 and 19, 11 Dec 1935, p 21, 12 Dec 1935, p 21; K. Rayner, The History of the Church of England in Queensland (Ph.D. thesis, University of Queensland, 1962).

Author: Betty Crouchley.²

     Seton John Laing Donaldson was born on 8 October 1864 at 23 Prince’s Gardens, Kensington, London, England^G.² He was the son of Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson and Amelia Cowper.¹ He died on 24 May 1882 at age 17 at Eton College, Windsor, Berkshire, England^G, accidentally drowned.
     He was educated at Eton College, Windsor, Berkshire, England^G.¹

     Amy Jane Stuart Donaldson was born on 8 August 1858.¹ She was the daughter of Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson and Amelia Cowper.¹ She died on 21 October 1859 at age 1.¹

     Mary Ethel Donaldson was born on 8 August 1860 at London, England^G.¹ She was the daughter of Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson and Amelia Cowper.¹ She married Reverend Algernon George Lawley, 5th Baron Wenlock, son of Beilby Richard Lawley, 2nd Baron Wenlock and Lady Elizabeth Grosvenor, on 16 July 1896.¹ She died, without issue.¹
     From 16 July 1896, her married name became Lawley.¹ After her marriage, Mary Ethel Donaldson was styled as Baroness Wenlock on 25 July 1918.

     Richard Herbert Ingpen de la Mare is the son of Walter de la Mare and Elfie Ingpen.^1,2 He married Amy Catherine Donaldson, daughter of Reverend Stuart Alexander Donaldson and Lady Albinia Frederica Hobart-Hampden, on 5 June 1930.¹
     He lived in 1970 at Much Hadham Hall, Hertfordshire, England^G.¹
     He had three sons and a daughter.¹

     Walter de la Mare was born in 1873.³ He married Elfie Ingpen.³ He died in 1956.^1,3
     He was awarded the Order of Merit (O.M.)¹ He was appointed Companion of Honour (C.H.)¹ He was a poet.³