Francis McGarry

Francis James McGarry (11 July 1897 – 21 November 1955) was a Catholic lay missionary and Protector of Aborigines who was instrumental in the establishment and day-to-day management of the Little Flower Mission in Central Australia.

Early life

McGarry was born on 11 July 1897 in Wagga Wagga in New South Wales, the younger of twins and sixth child, born to John McGarry, a butcher, and his wife Catherine Elizabeth, née Jones. When his father died the family moved to Sydney where they settled in Manly and McGarry attended Marist Brothers' High School in Darlinghurst. After completing schooling McGarry worked as a clerk and warehouseman at Peterson Laing and Bruce.

Following his return in 1922, McGarry joined the St Vincent De Paul Society where he was a weekly visitor at the Leprosarium at Little Bay, New South Wales from 1926; an act that he hid from people due to concerns about his exposure to infectious disease. this included erecting combined church and school and Wurlies, a form of humpies, for accommodating families. Examples of this include the expulsion of people in polygamous relationships from the mission camp and he believed that male initiation rites were excessively brutal and that the process made conversion to Christianity more difficult. McGarry wrote in a letter to his family that:

His cause for beatification was sent to the Vatican in 1970.