Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Rev. Donald Dow a Chaplain-General

The Rev. Donald Dow, who put in several years in Mirboo North, has been accepted as a chaplain for active per vice in Egypt and Palestine. He preached here a couple of Sundays back. The following, taken from 'last Friday's " Messenger,' should prove most interesting reading to his many local.friends.:--

The appointment and departure of Chaplain Donald Dow for special service in Egypt and Palestine has a bit of romance behind it,, and, as the Chaplain-General says, is "the smartest and promptest piece of work that has been done in connection with appointment of chaplains for the front." Mr Dow completed his theological course at Ormond College so recently as 1910. From the beginning of the war his name has been on the list of applicants for a chaplaincy, and was often before the Executive, but somehow it never secured selection, though he had the special claim of having been trained in the Commonwealth Forces. When he left his home at Mansfield to attend the General Assembly he little dreamt that a sudden call to the far-away front was in store for him. On the afternoon of Thursday, the Chaplain-General received this phone message from the Adjutant General's Department:"Please nominate special chaplain for Egypt ; must be good rider, and ready to go at short call,'' Dr. Rentoul replied, "How long can you give me ? I must range over the six States of Australia for a good rider." The answer was, "Till Saturday at latest; urgent!" There upon the Chaplain General be thought him that the General Assembly was then in session, and its Moderator happened to be Senior-Chaplain for Victoria. So he phoned to Colonel Macrae Stewart asking him to state the facts to the Assembly, and " to ask if any of the Victorian chaplains recently nominated could ride, and was willing to go to Egypt ? Or, failing that, was any of the Victorian applicants able to ride, and willing lo go to Egypt ?" This message a lady typist at the Assembly Office took' down, and sent it in to the Moderator. So the message was read to the Court, and the pursuit of the quest entrusted to the effective energy of Chaplain R. Wilson Macaulay. After meeting with some refusals, Mr Macaulay lighted upon Donald Dow, and, like a soldier and a man, Donald Dow answered at once to the call. Early next day he was in the Chaplain-General's study filling in the military form of application, and working out the various details of uniform, outfit, embarkation, parade service, and so forth.

"I m glad we have found you," said the Chaplain-General. " You are the true type of an officer and a chaplain. But I regret that you have to go into Egypt iii the-worst season of its heat August, September: and October are bad in Egypt and Syria. Are you sure you can face it ?:' 'Then Donald Dow answered with a quite smile, and a certain tremor of the lips, " if I shirked this call I could not go back home and face my wife. She's Stanley Reid's sister, and has had two; brothers' killed in battle. And I could not face my ownself!" ' Then silence fell, and then the Chaplain-General-said; to his ex student, "You have said, and done a fine thing.! 'Stan Reid' rode through the dangerous 'donga' in South Africa the Dutch burghers call 'hell,' and saved a British position. And I have no doubt you so will save men ! '

That very afternoon of Friday, Donald Dow, at headquarters, was made Chaplain to the A.I.F., and his preparations were gladly expedited by Major Macfarlane, who, himself of Highland blood, formed a large estimate of this straight, lit he, quietly effective young Highland-Australian officer, Chaplain Donald Dow. It is also, they think at headquarters, a great advantage that he has been trained in the Commonwealth Defence Forces. By the time this is published, he will be at sea, on his way to the far Eastern front.

Gippslander and Mirboo Times Thursday 20 June 1918 page 2