00:00:01.269 - 00:00:23.319

To keep the teaching and other staff equipped for their task. My father called the Practice Class Weekly. I think the title originated from the custom of calling upon members of the class to give an address on a subject which address was then adjudicated upon. And I

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understand that this system is still approved even in such a high tertiary center of learning as the present college. So I don't think you call it the the Practice class, but that's not a bad name for it. We had not been long attending the mission when

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we realized that Mr Hammond or in more intimate settings, the super was respected and loved by those under his supervision and training. As you can imagine, the demands of the mission took my father away from his home all day. He would be in the office or

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taking classes or meetings. That is if he was in Dublin at all for a lot of the time, he was floating around England, England can't get on, you know, without the Irish, he was far more severely separated from his family and family life than even the

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parish clergyman of those days. And that's saying something. One of the improvements in a modern clergyman's life is that he is no longer expected to neglect his family in order to minister effectively to his parish. During these years of service in the Irish church missions, the

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troubles broke out again. The majority of Irish people desire to be free from British domination. The 1916 rebellion had proved unsuccessful largely because they didn't agree closely enough among themselves. And there was a lack of unity among the rebels when the first World War concluded, the

00:02:15.410 - 00:02:35.119

British had built up for themselves a deep hatred in the Roman Catholic Irishman. Firstly, he resented the execution in 1916 of the leaders of the rebellion. Secondly, he resented the conscription of Irish men towards the end of the war. I state facts, not justification for them.

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So civil war began again under De Valera and Michael Collins to secure independence. Eventually, 26 counties of Ireland became the Irish Free State and six counties of Ulster in the North remained in the United Kingdom. This compromise was not palatable to the thoroughgoing section of Sinn

00:03:00.440 - 00:03:22.800

Fein, the anti British party. So the troubles soon broke out again, the old woman's remark proved to be too sadly accurate as she stood at the docks at North Wall, Dublin watching the last British soldiers embark for England. She exclaimed glory be to God. There's the

00:03:22.809 - 00:03:48.820

last of them fellas. Now we can get on fighting among ourselves in peace and that was exactly what happened, the Irish Republican army and even in those days, we weren't quite sure when troubles arose, whether it was the Ira or the IRR, there seemed to be

00:03:48.830 - 00:04:14.259

two sections even then as there are today. But the Irish Republican army focused its forces against the free state army. And Dublin once again heard the explosion of shells demolishing the forecourts which the Ira had taken over before they were dislodged from the building. Priceless records

00:04:14.270 - 00:04:44.970

had been destroyed. During this period, the protestant population in the South was further depleted. Many protestant farmers were liquidated or obliged to leave the country. As you know, eventually Southern Ireland became a republic. In 1948 all Irish people became dispossessed thereby of British citizenship even though

00:04:44.980 - 00:05:04.679

they had been born in Ireland when it was in the United Kingdom. Such are the quirks of history. Thousands of Irish men had fought in the British Army during the first World War. They had even provided whole regiments such as the Dublin fusiliers, but now they

00:05:04.690 - 00:05:30.700

found themselves dismissed from citizenship. However, after the bloodbath, Ireland found peace in the Republic though the Ira was pledged to fight for a United Ireland and to this day is seeking to overwhelm northern Ireland by terrorist tactics. During these terrible years, my father learned that his

00:05:30.709 - 00:05:50.279

name was put on the black list. A list of persons to be removed by the Ira, the Irish Republican Army. He also learned that his name was eventually taken off the list through the testimony of a Roman Catholic member of the Sinn Fein Party who protested

00:05:50.519 - 00:06:09.380

that Mr Hammond was always honest and fair, even though he was such a heretic. I know my father received a number of threats to kill him and more than once was shadowed for his protection by detectives in plain clothes. I never knew him to voice any

00:06:09.390 - 00:06:31.239

concern or hesitate to carry on his work. He accepted that his life was in God's hands. Whatever the outcome increasingly, he came to be in demand in England, the intervarsity fellowship asked him to address meetings and he traveled extensively in England on deputation work for the

00:06:31.250 - 00:06:52.809

Irish church missions. In 1926 the archbishop of Sydney invited my father to go to Sydney to give a series of lectures on the Book of Common Prayer and its proposed revision. 10 years later when Moore Theological College was in need of a principal, the archbishop the

00:06:52.820 - 00:07:13.799

most. Reverend Howard Kington m wrote to my father to offer him the appointment of the principal ship and also the directorate of ST Phillip's church. I believe this offer was the result of the impression he made on his previous visit. My father was then 60 years

00:07:13.809 - 00:07:33.559

of age and in the prime of his career, most of us think of retiring at 65 years of age. He accepted the call to commence an entirely new style of life in an entirely new country. At the age of 60. I imagine that some of you

00:07:33.570 - 00:07:54.829

may remember him in his later years. A few of you may remember him in his earlier years in Moore College, he came to a broken down college. The enrollment was 11. If I remember right inside the building told the familiar story of lack of finance with

00:07:54.839 - 00:08:14.790

energy and wit. He set about reviving the institution and richly, his work was blessed. Over the years. In his time, the enrolment climbed to 70 students. A new wing for student accommodation was built behind the old chapel. The new chapel was donated by the Reverend Canon

00:08:14.799 - 00:08:41.200

Frank Cash. And some buildings in Carillion Avenue were acquired. The deaconess Institute became closely linked academically to the college, educational standards for entry to the college were raised and the theological course was extended. His tolerance and depth of knowledge came to be appreciated. One student records

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that once when disputing with the principal, a point in his lecture, the principal brought him into his library pointing to various books. He indicated authors who agreed with the student and others who differed. He suggested that the students study the matter further. He always tried to

00:09:01.869 - 00:09:28.409

be fair to the opposite viewpoint. In addition to the demands of his principal ship and of his reate, he was also appointed to various Diacin committees including eventually the standing committee when he first arrived in church house. Uh he was met by the caretaker and he

00:09:28.419 - 00:09:58.559

was proceeding to knock on the door when the caretaker said you can't go there, sir. The standing committee is sitting there later on. He just understood how long they could sit. Moreover, he was a confidant of the archbishop who was a man great enough to value

00:09:58.570 - 00:10:21.190

and use the special gifts of others at all hours of day and night. Some of you may remember the student squashes held on Saturday evenings in the principal's house. The term squash was quite descriptive here. The print would talk in a relaxed way on great doctrines

00:10:21.200 - 00:10:44.440

of the faith and interlace his learning with humorous anecdotes. I think that it was in settings such as these intimate and relaxed. That one really saw the warm humanity and satisfying devotion of his character and lifestyle. Soon after his arrival in Sydney, he renewed his warmth

00:10:44.450 - 00:11:11.690

friendship of 1926 with his namesake, the Reverend Canon RBS Hammond, Rector of ST Barnabas Broadway, social campaigner of Hammond fame and Stalworth for the cause of temperance. Both hammonds were cannons of ST Andrews Cathedral and later both were archdeacons. His family were highly abused when Archdeacon

00:11:11.700 - 00:11:39.780

TC put on his anachronistic apron and gaiters to comply with the archbishop's request. When attending formal functions, we always felt that he had not been designed for such decoration on my father's appointment to the Arch Diagon. Some supporter of Hammond Bill left a large sack full

00:11:39.789 - 00:12:00.150

of second hand clothes in the porch of the principal's house. I deny any suggestion that he availed himself of. I remember some of you may remember two occasions when he became the protagonist for evangelical churchman, I refer to his debate with Dr Angus of Sydney University

00:12:00.919 - 00:12:19.530

and his testimony in the case of the red book, a revision of the prayer book promoted by the Bishop of Bathurst. At that time, the most reverend of whit batty of Brisbane also found him a capable opponent on several occasions in General Synod. Indeed, one of

00:12:19.539 - 00:12:39.840

the encouraging factors in the final session of General Synod that adopted the constitution for the church of England in Australia for commendation to the dioceses was the agreement between my father and archbishop Betty. One member of General Synod was heard to remark surely the holy spirit

00:12:39.849 - 00:13:08.849

is at work here. And although that may at first seem humorous, it certainly was true. I think it was a great triumph that these two distinguished uh protagonists at the end of their ministry found themselves on one platform, a very wide audience became familiar with his

00:13:08.859 - 00:13:30.739

voice as he broadcast from TCH on alternate Sundays, principles of protestantism became a regular feature and he continued this ministry to the very last on the morning after his death, I flew up from Melbourne and went into his study in ST Philip's rectory. All was just

00:13:30.750 - 00:13:52.210

as he had left at the previous night. A large volume of Cardinal Bearman's letters in Latin was open on the table where he had been preparing his radio talk for principles of Protestantism. God had given him a wonderful measure of health and mental ability. At 84

00:13:52.219 - 00:14:12.940

years of age, he was still reading Boarman in Latin. I have remarked earlier that my father's family life was curtailed to a degree by the demands of his ministry. However, I remember with thankfulness times, he spent with us when we went as a family on holidays

00:14:12.950 - 00:14:33.859

in the old country. On these occasions, we really relaxed. Sometimes we hired bicycles and went riding around the neighborhood. Although he must have been in his late forties, he mounted his machine and rode out with his young sons. His mounting was a source of entertainment to

00:14:33.869 - 00:14:57.179

us. He stood on the back step. I don't suppose, you know what a back step is. Well, in those days, on the back axle of your push bike, there was one extended nut that stuck out like a finger and this was called the back step. And

00:14:57.190 - 00:15:19.880

to mount his bicycle, dad used to stand on the back step and giving a push with his free foot, then lurched into the saddle and anxiously found the pedals. Mhm. When we came to the top of the hill, he frequently took the lead. His weight was

00:15:19.890 - 00:15:44.739

in his favor. I can still see him drifting down before us with his coat unbuttoned flapping behind him. Like a pair of broken wings that was then scholar preacher, lecturer, debater, teacher, and loving father who lived life with zest, told stories with a twinkle in his

00:15:44.750 - 00:16:10.000

eye and loved God as intimate friend and adored sovereign. Wherever he went, he reached out to others his life supporting the message he never failed to promote in public and in personal contacts, one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus blessed are the dead

00:16:10.010 - 00:16:41.820

who die in the Lord. Even so says the spirit for they rest from their labors and their works do follow them. Thanks. Thank you very much, Mr Hammond. Now, I haven't had a chance to uh talk to Mrs Taplin and I don't know if she is

00:16:41.830 - 00:17:15.239

going to come and say anything to us at this point. She is both Mr Hammond and the archbishop say she is and she is, please. Yes, stand up. All right. Can you all see me now? Um I, as you know, I have been in hospital struggling

00:17:15.249 - 00:17:38.810

with an eye and I'm very glad to be here with you tonight. But my um method of uh reminiscing is going to be quite different from my brothers. And I suppose you understand that I wish to show the kind of man my father was his serenity

00:17:38.819 - 00:18:09.069

of faith, his humor, his loving understanding. And I feel that if I can in these reminiscences, make this understood by you all I will have succeeded in what I want to do now, I feel too that perhaps my, um, talk would be a little bit more

00:18:09.119 - 00:18:28.780

of the reminiscing type and more personal than my brothers because I was with my father and mother longer than they were. You see, they, um, became curates and went out up to Belfast and so on. And I came out with mom and dad and lived in

00:18:28.790 - 00:18:51.099

more college with them. I taught Glen in Skeggs Mora and then I married. But I have got those little perhaps more intimate touches. And I'd like to touch on just some of them to show you how much joy we had in life together and how dad's

00:18:51.109 - 00:19:13.560

unfailing serenity of faith stood by him in every circumstance. Well, my brother mentioned the early days and I would like again to refer to them in those early days when we were living in tent stay in the street. I was never in 40 Sing Street, but

00:19:13.569 - 00:19:35.260

I was in Tent Stamer Street and we used to be disturbed at night by the firing because a sniper, we were the only Protestants in the uh street and through the sniper of course, chose our chimney to snipe from or why not. And the answering fire

00:19:35.270 - 00:19:50.369

made it dangerous for us to remain in the bedrooms. And mom and dad used to come in, haul us out of bed and put us in the car doors all wrapped up warmly and grab the mattresses off the bed, put them up against the windows and

00:19:50.380 - 00:20:15.660

whatever furniture they could hurriedly, uh, put there. Now, dad got the bright idea to keep the youngsters employed. We play, I spy in the dark and one of my brothers, I won't tell you which one objected strenuously. How can we play? I spy in the dark.

00:20:15.670 - 00:20:33.270

That's ridiculous. And dad just looked at him with a smile and said, well, try to use your sanctified imagination. So we played, I spy in the dark until the bell would ring. And dad would have to go out with the bullets flying around to attend to

00:20:33.280 - 00:20:54.250

the sick and the dying because he was a chaplain too, to the hospital. Now, there was another side to dad to a rather mischievous side and that was, there was a curfew. We were supposed to be in by, I think it was eight o'clock, maybe nine

00:20:54.260 - 00:21:14.060

o'clock at night. And when we were out, dad always got telling stories and we couldn't get him to move. Oh, it'll be all right. It'll be all right. Or we'd run all the way home nearly. And one night I remember very clearly we got to our

00:21:14.069 - 00:21:35.170

hall door and there appeared the army arresting the people who were just behind us and they'd spend the night in jail because they'd broken the curfew. And dad looked round to us all with a beatified smile and said, we did it. And many a time we

00:21:35.180 - 00:21:57.160

had a run from the curfew. Those are just little, uh, sides to that. Also, the fact that I too remember the holidays in County Wicklow and her dad was just like a big kid playing the games with us. I believe French and English was a very

00:21:57.170 - 00:22:09.369

favorite game with us. The English lined up on one side and the French. I don't know why it was the French but it was the French. They lined up on the other and you, you had to try to cross the lines where whoever was caught was

00:22:09.380 - 00:22:30.489

a prisoner. Well, there were two glorious golden cedar trees there. And one day when we were playing, dad was dashing across the one that he suddenly disappeared, we all stood and looked, where's he gone? And then we suddenly saw a very red face appearing amongst the

00:22:30.500 - 00:22:49.569

branches of the golden cedar. This was hollow in the middle and we didn't know. And poor dad was all entangled in the bushes and we had to extract them amidst gusts of laughter, but he enjoyed it too. Then to turn to another type. We, when we

00:22:49.579 - 00:23:12.420

got older, we went to the Keswick convention with dad and mum and dad was asked to take charge of the open air evangelism in the marketplace of Keswick. And I remember this time he said, we learn a Gaelic song. We learned uh a chorus. Really? It

00:23:12.430 - 00:23:32.640

was too. Um The English was follow, follow. I will follow Jesus everywhere he leads me, I will follow on. And so we learned this by the Gaelic being written out so that we could understand what it was because we didn't know Gaelic really. And we sang

00:23:32.650 - 00:23:57.810

it lustily at the in the marketplace. Then one of the men got up to give the address and much to our amusing and related it to dad, much to his amusement. The bystander said, how will they speak English? So we didn't say anything but him, but

00:23:57.819 - 00:24:18.949

we told dad and he was very amused about that. Now to turn to another side, the compassionate side of my father in Ireland in Dublin mainly. But throughout Ireland really, that felt the need to open up other homes, not just the smiley homes which he was

00:24:18.959 - 00:24:39.390

connected with, as my brother mentioned. But he felt very much the call of the need of the illegitimate Children of which there were unfortunately very many in Ireland and they were very sadly neglected. They were pushed into soap boxes and left there. And so he felt

00:24:39.400 - 00:25:00.119

that he would like to open up home, especially for these Children, not to put them with the other Children. For fear, people would object. And to his amazement, he met with a great deal of opposition, both from the clergy and from the laity. And it was,

00:25:00.130 - 00:25:22.670

you know, I I was very surprised at this because he thought in Christian compassion, we should think about these Children however, he had a certain amount of stubbornness there and he didn't give way. He got some laity and some clergy around him. And he succeeded in

00:25:22.680 - 00:25:45.310

his dream. He opened up one home in the Coombe near ST Patrick's in Dublin. And for the uh the girls and the young little boys and another home for the older boys. And then he saw that these Children would have to be educated. They'd have to

00:25:45.319 - 00:26:03.540

be able to meet their place in life. There's either a battle in life and they'd have to be able to meet it. So not only teaching them the spiritual concepts which he felt they must know. And also of course, the secular and the inspectors used to

00:26:03.550 - 00:26:27.459

come round and test the, the schools and they used to find any fault with them, but he also wanted them to be able to meet life when they grew up. And so whatever Charles showed ability in whatever direction that was encouraged. And some of those Children

00:26:27.469 - 00:26:48.530

blessed the day for the day they entered the home, the children's fold was the name of the home in the Combe. Some of them became ministers in the church of Ireland, some of them became teachers, some of them shop assistants, some of them were adopted into

00:26:48.540 - 00:27:10.180

good Christian homes. What a change for those Children who've been just dragged up and kicked about not through any fault of theirs, but through the fault of the adults. Not of them. And so that is another side of dad's compassionate, loving nature. He had a fight

00:27:10.189 - 00:27:35.140

to get these homes started, but he succeeded with the help of some of his friends. Well, then when leaving Ireland for Australia in 1936 the archbishops and the bishops and clergy held a farewell gathering for him. And they presented him with a beautiful silver tray inscribed

00:27:35.150 - 00:28:01.239

with Irish inscriptions and also inscribed in the middle of it, expressing their appreciation for his ministry. And I remember dad in his inimitable way when he was replying, remarked, you have to be going away to be appreciated. Of course, this was smelt with a smile and

00:28:01.250 - 00:28:26.390

a twinkle. Well, we've mentioned some of his books in understanding the men was written on board the orphan, the ship we came out on and he had no library, no reference books. He had only his, his Bible with him. He wrote that book without a single

00:28:26.400 - 00:28:51.819

reference book. When he came, when his library arrived at Moore College, he checked and found every reference was correct. Then he sent the scientific part which of course has had to be modernized. Um since he sent that to Professor Blair in Glasgow University and he wrote

00:28:51.829 - 00:29:17.219

back to say that everything was correct. That was a wonderful feat. I consider he had a prodigious memory as those of you who knew him would remember. Now we had many fun fill moments in our family life in the college. And this was all alongside a

00:29:17.229 - 00:29:45.500

steady courageous witness for the truth that never faltered in it. And I think many will remember dad's courtesy in debate. I think he was really quite renowned for his courtesy and his um wonderful gift of bringing a laugh where things were getting very, you know, people

00:29:45.510 - 00:30:09.719

getting hot under the collar and so on. He'd suddenly uh tell a funny story or bring a laugh and the tension would ease. I wonder, dare I tell this episode, I have to ask the archbishop's leave because his father is in it. May I um this

00:30:09.729 - 00:30:31.469

is just to show you the fun we had sometimes in the college, Archbishop Mole one night brought up Bishop Psa to meet us. The Bishop Pilcher had arrived and he hadn't met uh us officially. So Archbishop Mo brought him up. But the background of this, that

00:30:31.479 - 00:30:52.000

the archbishop's father and Archdeacon Johnson had great fun at my mother's expense. They used to ring her up and copy the archbishop voice on the phone and she'd be all polite. And then she'd realized it wasn't the archbishop at all. And so this night, we were

00:30:52.010 - 00:31:09.199

free. This Saturday people had been so wonderfully kind to us when we came out to Australia that for three months, we hadn't a free Saturday. And this we realized and dad said, let's have a family evening and she's in the study with me. We light a

00:31:09.229 - 00:31:22.209

fire fire and I'll work at the table and you can pull the sofa up and do what you want. So, I thought, well, this is a good night to have a good mending night. So I got all the things I needed mending and I brought them

00:31:22.219 - 00:31:36.199

down. Well, we were busy and dad occasionally would talk to us and we talked to him, then he'd go on again with his work and mum got tired of this. So she said, come on, do we finished putting the carpet down? It wasn't properly fixed on

00:31:36.209 - 00:31:58.569

the stairs. So we shot out and were nailing the carpet busily when a knock came to the door and a voice said, this is the archbishop of Sydney here. Her mum thought it was either Archdeacon Robinson or Archdeacon Johnson. So she said to him, oh, is

00:31:58.579 - 00:32:02.199

it now my boy? Oh, well, you can stay out there and cool your heels.