Introduction

Biography

Robert was the son of Ed­ward Ed­gar, an en­gin­eer, and Ma­ry Has­lam, and hus­band of Ka­the­rine Has­lam (mar­ried 1878).

His fa­mi­ly emi­grat­ed to Mel­bourne in Feb­ru­ary 1855, set­tling two years lat­er in St. Ar­naud, Vic­tor­ia, a small min­ing town at the time.

Robert at­tend­ed the lo­cal school un­til about 14 years of age, when he be­came a pu­pil-teach­er there.

He lat­er tried gold-dig­ging, but found the work too hard. A year of tu­tor­ing fol­lowed, then gold min­ing again, farm­ing, and quar­ry­ing. In 1870 he bought a share in a gold mine.

Though raised an Ang­li­can, Ro­bert ev­en­tu­al­ly moved to Meth­od­ism. He be­came a teach­er in a Sun­day school, then a lo­cal preach­er. In Sep­tem­ber 1871 he was nom­in­at­ed as a can­di­date for the Meth­odist min­is­try. In April 1872, he be­gan stu­dies at the pro­vi­sion­al theo­lo­gic­al in­sti­tute at Wes­ley Col­lege, Mel­bourne.

He served at the Wes­ley Church, Lons­dale Street, for 21 years, found­ed the Cen­tral Mis­sion, and was Su­per­in­ten­dent of the Mis­sion, 1893–1910.

He was the last pre­si­dent of the Wes­ley­an Con­fer­ence of Vic­tor­ia and Tas­man­ia in 1901, and pre­sid­ed at the op­en­ing of the first Unit­ed Me­tho­dist Ses­sion.