Silas Mead

Silas Mead (16 August 1834 – 13 September 1909) was an English Baptist minister who founded the Flinders Street Baptist Church and South Australian Baptist Association in Adelaide, South Australia, and is remembered for the missionary work in India which he inspired.

Early life and education

Mead was born on 16 August 1834 in Curry Mallet, Somerset, England, the youngest son of farmers Thomas and Honor Mead, née Uttermare. He was baptised at age 15 and helped local Baptists build a chapel, where he conducted services as a lay preacher. He attended night school at nearby Taunton, then entered Stepney College, which became Regent's Park College in 1856. Mead completed an MA there in "Mental Philosophy" in 1859 and an LLB in 1860. He took further studies at the University of London aiming for a doctorate of divinity, but was frustrated by their inability to grant such a degree.

Career Mead applied for a position with the Baptist Missionary Society but was rejected. Meanwhile George Fife Angas wrote to Regent's Park College seeking candidates for a Baptist ministry in Adelaide. Principal Joseph Angus recommended Mead, who accepted. They negotiated purchase of a block of land on Flinders Street and asked architect Robert Thomas, son of the newspaper proprietor to prepare plans. An Association library was established at Flinders Street Baptist in 1868, consisting largely of donations from Mead's own collection, and he was the inaugural editor of the denominational periodical, Truth and Progress the same year. He served as Vice President and President of the South Australian YMCA and helped drafted its constitution in 1878.

After his wife's death from typhoid in June 1874, Mead sought treatment overseas and spent fifteen months on leave while his sister in law looked after his five children in Adelaide. During his travels, Mead visited the mission work in Faridpur, spoke at the Baptist Union Assembly in Newcastle, visited the Holy Land and Europe, and met with leaders of the new holiness movement in England. He moved with his children into the church's newly finished manse in 1877 and the following year married widow Mary Leighton. Mead made four visits to India and his son Cecil was the first man sent to the mission work in Bengal in 1892.

Mead founded the South Australian chapter of Christian Endeavour in 1888, serving as its President, then as first President of CE Australia in 1891, He met with Hudson Taylor and William Booth on their visits to Adelaide in 1890 and 1891 respectively. Students petitioned for him to remain as a tutor for another year. He became a member of the Baptist Union of Western Australia Council, serving as President in 1902, and again became active in Christian Endeavour and Bible teaching, as well as advocacy on social issues. She assisted her father in promoting Christian Endeavour. Annie Blanche Mead (8 January 1870 – 9 June 1961) married Rev. Alfred Samuel Wilson in 1896. Flora Beatrice Mead (20 January 1873 – 9 September 1886) died of typhoid fever. He married again, to the widow Mary Leighton (c. 1835 – 21 March 1886) at Flinders Street on 22 October 1878. He had no further children.