Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

17/03/1917

Date of Discharge

10/12/1919

Place of Enlistment

Queanbeyan NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

20/12/1888

Place of Birth

Norwood, South Australia

Address (at enlistment)

Duntroon ACT

Occupation

Clergyman

Next of Kin

Emily Churchward (mother), Norwood, South Australia

Service Number

20488

Final Rank

Chaplain 4th Class

Final Unit

1 Training Brigade AIF

Queanbeyan Methodist Church Roll of Honour

Churchward was a successor to Richard Boyer as Methodist Minister for Canberra. He initially enlisted as a Private in the Medical Corps but was appointed as a Methodist chaplain to the training camps in England in March 1919. After the war he moved to Fiji as a missionary. In 1922 he married Marjorie Shaw in Davuilevu, Fiji. Churchward became expert in Pacific languages, producing books on Fijian and Tongan grammar and a Rotuman-English dictionary. He died in Fiji on 23 February 1968.

Description - height 5 feet 9 inches, weight 133 pounds, chest 31-35 inches, fair complexion, grey eyes, light brown hair, Methodist, four moles on his back and a scar on his chin.

James Udy, 'Living Stones: The Story of the Methodist Church in Canberra', 1974
Queanbeyan/Canberra Advocate - 28 December 1916
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)