I lived from 1899-1979. I was from Australia, and am in the Oceania category.
Robert Steel Byrnes (1899-1979), was a Presbyterian administrator, soldier and writer, born on 6 June 1899 at Goldsborough, near Dunolly, Victoria, youngest of eight children of Patrick James Byrnes, goldminer, and his wife Agnes, née Cairns, both native-born. He was educated at Melbourne High School, then worked for the Melbourne City Council. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 28 October 1918, but was demobilised on 24 December. Subsequently appointed an organising and travelling secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, he was engaged in youth work for two years. On 3 August 1922 at Northcote he married a teacher Janet Mafeking Perkins. That year they moved to Sydney where he was employed by the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales and graduated from the University of Sydney (B.A., 1932) with the Wilfrid E. Johnson prize in economics.
On 5 August 1940 Byrnes was attached as an Officer to the AIF as a representative of the Young Men's Christian Association; he travelled to the Middle East with the 7th Division in October. Posted to the 2nd/1st Battalion, he remained with the unit during its service in Egypt and Syria—except when in the Western Desert (October 1941) with the 9th Division—and was made senior representative of the Y.M.C.A. in Egypt. He returned with the battalion to Australia in August 1942, leaved the Regiment one month later.
October 1942 Byrnes became general secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland and treasurer of its assembly. He initiated several developmental projects, including cottage homes for the elderly. A councillor of Emmanuel College, University of Queensland, and of the Presbyterian and Methodist Schools' Association, he was a board-member of Scots College, Warwick, and of the Presbyterian Girls' colleges at Warwick and Toowoomba. He was also president (1952-57) of the Queensland Y.M.C.A., and governor of St Andrew's War Memorial Hospital, Brisbane, and of the Freemasons Homes for the Aged.
Byrnes was well-respected and we;; educated. He wrote Serving the Church (1948, 1958) and The Kirk in Queensland (1951), and edited (1963-65) the religious journal, Outlook. In 1954 he published Endeavour and Other Poems. A member (1954) and deputy-chairman (1957) of the Queensland Literature Board of Review, he was co-editor of The Queensland Centenary Anthology (1959). State (1952-57) and federal (1960, 1962) president of the Fellowship of Australian Writers, in 1961 he visited the Soviet Union. A volume of his collected poems, The Light of Setting Suns, was published posthumously in 1980.
Byrnes was appointed MBE in 1964 and next year retired as the Church's general secretary. Proud of his British heritage and its customs, he was deeply interested in contemporary affairs. He had a shrewd appreciation of personalities, a wide circle of acquaintances and friends, and was a Freemason. Survived by his wife, daughter and three sons, he died on 16 November 1979 in St Andrew's Nursing Home, Brisbane.
On 5 August 1940 Byrnes was attached as an Officer to the AIF as a representative of the Young Men's Christian Association; he travelled to the Middle East with the 7th Division in October. Posted to the 2nd/1st Battalion, he remained with the unit during its service in Egypt and Syria—except when in the Western Desert (October 1941) with the 9th Division—and was made senior representative of the Y.M.C.A. in Egypt. He returned with the battalion to Australia in August 1942, leaved the Regiment one month later.
October 1942 Byrnes became general secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland and treasurer of its assembly. He initiated several developmental projects, including cottage homes for the elderly. A councillor of Emmanuel College, University of Queensland, and of the Presbyterian and Methodist Schools' Association, he was a board-member of Scots College, Warwick, and of the Presbyterian Girls' colleges at Warwick and Toowoomba. He was also president (1952-57) of the Queensland Y.M.C.A., and governor of St Andrew's War Memorial Hospital, Brisbane, and of the Freemasons Homes for the Aged.
Byrnes was well-respected and we;; educated. He wrote Serving the Church (1948, 1958) and The Kirk in Queensland (1951), and edited (1963-65) the religious journal, Outlook. In 1954 he published Endeavour and Other Poems. A member (1954) and deputy-chairman (1957) of the Queensland Literature Board of Review, he was co-editor of The Queensland Centenary Anthology (1959). State (1952-57) and federal (1960, 1962) president of the Fellowship of Australian Writers, in 1961 he visited the Soviet Union. A volume of his collected poems, The Light of Setting Suns, was published posthumously in 1980.
Byrnes was appointed MBE in 1964 and next year retired as the Church's general secretary. Proud of his British heritage and its customs, he was deeply interested in contemporary affairs. He had a shrewd appreciation of personalities, a wide circle of acquaintances and friends, and was a Freemason. Survived by his wife, daughter and three sons, he died on 16 November 1979 in St Andrew's Nursing Home, Brisbane.
Popular poetry
- You lie at peace within a city square,
Who sailed wide seas with Phillip to our shoe;14 lines - Just she and I, where day’s dull things expire
In night’s oblivion, from care aloof----9 lines - This is the loveliest vision in our land.
It stands beside the silent silver stream15 lines - I stood like Wordsworth at Westminster. Fair
The city lay, and wore the river mist14 lines - The sea has sunk to silence and to sleep:
The waves are spent and all the winds are still9 lines - Nor wind not cloud but an eternal sporing
Dwells on Olympus: so he came not there14 lines - The way is steep, and still the call is On,--
I would not know the weary life and stale23 lines - (The War Memorial of the University of Sydney)
Death is an ocean, an uncharted deep.15 lines
