Robert Steel

Robert Steel (15 May 1827 – 9 October 1893) was a Presbyterian minister in colonial Australia.

Steel was of Scotch extraction, but was born at Pontypool, Monmouthshire, Wales, the son of James Steel and Anne Gillespie his wife. He was educated at the Ayr Academy and at the Aberdeen and Edinburgh Universities, being licensed to preach by the Free Presbytery of Irvine in 1851. Steel was created D.D. by Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, and in 1874 was transferred to the pastorate of St. Stephen's Church, Phillip Street, Sydney. In the same year Steel visited the New Hebrides, in the Dayspring, in order to see the working of the missions, in which he had always taken a deep interest, and published a book on the subject in 1880. Amongst other works, Steel is author of the following: Doing Good, or the Christian in Walks of Usefulness (1858); Samuel the Prophet, and the Lessons of his Life and Times (1860); Lives made Sublime by Faith and Work (1861); Burning and Shining Lights, or Memoirs of Good Ministers of Jesus Christ (1864); The Christian Teacher in Sunday Schools (1867); The Shorter Catechism with Analyses, Illustrations, and Anecdotes (1885); and The Achievements of Youth (1891). All the above were published by Messrs. Nelson & Sons, of Edinburgh.

Steel married at Huntly, Scotland, on 23 November 1853, Miss Mary Allardyce; he died at North Sydney on 9 October 1893 and was buried in the Presbyterian section of Rookwood Cemetery, survived by three married daughters and three sons.