W. L. Jarvis

Wilfred Lemuel Jarvis (28 January 1895 – 30 October 1977) was a Baptist evangelist and gospel singer in Brisbane and Sydney, Australia.

History Jarvis was born in Cheshire, England, a son of Harriett Ann Jarvis (c. 1870 – 26 August 1933) and Arthur Charles Jarvis (c. 1868 – March 1934). The family moved to Australia around 1910, followed by Burnie, and other towns in Tasmania 1921–1923, then returned to New South Wales.

Jarvis volunteered for service with the First AIF on 19 July 1918, giving his occupation as "theological student", but was not required to serve overseas as the Armistice intervened, and was discharged in November 1918. He was assisted by his father, A. C. Jarvis, in Tasmania in 1922.

In 1932 he was assistant to Rev. C. James Tinsley, president of the Australian Baptist Union and of Stanmore Baptist Church.

He was appointed pastor of the Bathurst Street Baptist Church, reckoned the "mother church" of Baptists in NSW, in 1935 and left in 1937.

He was elected president of the Council of Churches in New South Wales in 1937, at a time of upheaval, the Church of England having quit the organisation.

In 1952 he was elected President-General of the Baptist Union of Australia and a vice-president of the Baptist World Alliance.

Publications The King of Kings (1920) Cheer Up the Heart Campaign Song Book (1932)

Family Jarvis was a brother of Charles Jarvis; Edwin Jarvis, and Grace Jarvis.

Jarvis married Bessie May Stumbles (17 May 1891 – 9 December 1971), Sunday-school teacher at Jireh in Brisbane in 1920. Their children include: Doreen May Jarvis (8 February 1923 – ) married C. D. Ransley Wilfred Arthur Henry Jarvis (3 June 1924 – 1 Oct 2021) engaged to Hilary Kelshaw; professor of psychology, married Pamela Salkeld Edith May Jarvis (23 August 1927 – )

Stanley Jarvis (died 18 February 1933), a Methodist preacher in Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory 1923–1927, is most likely not related.