News / Community
Salvos’ stalwart moves on to new challenges
Officer bids farewell as Brunswick citadel celebrates 140 years
Mark Phillips
ALISON Templar arrived at the Brunswick Salvation Army Citadel a decade ago as a grieving widow seeking comfort and solace. Next month, she will leave having spent the past six years offering a helping hand to others as she herself was given.
After a period as officer in charge at the Brunswick Corps, Lieutenant Templar is moving onto a new challenge as a prison chaplain.
One of her final duties at Brunswick was to oversee the corps’ 140th anniversary celebration last weekend.
Advertisement
The Brunswick citadel is one of the oldest in Victoria, having been established when the colony was still in its early days, and less than 20 years after William and Catherine Booth had founded the Salvation Army in the slums of London’s East End.
Brunswick was a new suburb but already one that had experienced significant poverty and hardship, making it a logical target for the Salvation Army’s mission of helping the poor, destitute and hungry.
The Brunswick corps began in 1883, and its first hall was built the following year on the same site in Albert Street where it stands today. It was officially opened by the former Premier and Chief Secretary of the colony, Sir Graham Berry, on August 29, 1884.
The current stone building opened in 1928 after a fire destroyed the original timber citadel. It was extensively renovated in 2010.
The weekend celebrations brought together past and present serving officers and members of the Brunswick Salvation Army community. Historic photographs and documents from the corps’ history were on display, and on Saturday they were entertained by a Salvos brass band, which played several pieces composed by one of the Brunswick corps’ most revered sons, Arthur Gullidge, including his most enduring hymn, ‘Divine Communion’.
On Sunday, the citadel hosted a full church service with a speech from Commissioner Miriam Gluyas, Australia’s most senior Salvation Army officer.
Arthur Gullidge was the bandmaster at Brunswick who along with several other members of the band joined the Australian Army during World War 2 as stretcher bearers. He composed ‘Divine Communion’ while stationed at Rabaul in Papua New Guinea, but never got to hear it played in his home town.
Gullidge’s battalion were taken prisoners of war by the Japanese, and he lost his life along with about 1000 other prisoners when a ship they were being transported on was sunk by an American submarine on July 1, 1942.
Australia’s Prime Minister at the time was John Curtin, who as a young man at the beginning of the 20th century had attended the Albert Street citadel when he was living in Brunswick.
In a bitter twist, Curtin was informed of the sinking of the ship which was carrying Gullidge, the Montevideo Maru, but was unable to notify families of their relatives’ fate because of the Official Secrets Act that was in operation during the war.
Alison Templar says the Brunswick Salvation Army Corps’ mission today remains unchanged from that of 140 years ago.
“I would say we’re still doing what William Booth and Catherine Booth envisaged,” she said.
“William Booth summed it up well when he said it’s ‘soup, soap and salvation’. So feeding people, giving them dignity and preaching the gospel.”
Templar stressed that religious faith was not a requirement to be part of the Brunswick Salvos and church worship was not forced upon people.
Brunswick is now part of the Merri-bek City Corps, which also includes the Coburg area. The corps serves a free hot breakfast twice a week and runs a ‘Recovery Church’ for people recovering from addiction every Wednesday. It provides food parcels and emergency relief vouchers, and works closely with the Salvos store in Sydney Road to provide people with clothing and furniture.
“It’s really reaching out to people in need, whatever that need looks like,” Templar said.
“We work with a lot of people who are homeless; a lot of rough sleepers make use of what we do; refugees; a lot of people who are fresh out of prison.
“One of the really big connecting factors of everyone who comes for help is that they’re lonely. Social connection is a really huge part of what we do.”
It was loneliness that brought ‘Barbara’ to the Brunswick Salvation Army about 10 years ago.
“I was very isolated when my children left home and I was completely alone,” she said.
“I kept seeing this sign in Albert Street for the Salvation Army but coming from Switzerland I didn’t know what the Salvation Army was but I came along to find out.”
Barbara was invited to join a weekly women’s group, which has provided her with essential companionship.
“During the pandemic, this place was a lifesaver because they organised takeaway meals and we could pick up a meal and go to the park next door and still have some kind of interaction with other people,” she said.
“Of course the food was nice but it was seeing other people [that was important]. A lot of the people who come here live alone.”
Read more:
Stories of hope and resilience from the streets of Brunswick
Templar said the Covid pandemic has had a lasting impact and the Brunswick Salvos are now busier than they were before the pandemic.
“Ever since Covid, and especially now with things like the rental crisis, it is people who are working full-time but still struggling to support their families.
“It’s a lot of people who would have classed themselves as middle class and not needing assistance and are now needing to reach out. The rental crisis is really causing a lot of distress and hardship for people.”
Templar’s own path to working for the Salvation Army began when she reached out for her help to deal with her own personal turmoil.
“I actually came here at a point when I needed some emotional support. I had been married to a person who had an addiction, and he came here and got support with his addiction, and when he passed away, the funeral was here, and that was how I first came into contact with the Salvation Army and just felt drawn to stay connected.
“I had a job and a good income [as a secondary school teacher], so I thought, ‘I’m not really going to fit in here’. But people just welcomed me in and — because they’d known my husband — were just so supportive and loving through my grief and my son’s grief, and I just started to volunteer here and to serve here. I just felt a sense of being called here to to be part of the place.”
Templar’s new posting will be to work as a chaplain at the Dame Phyllis Frost and Tarrengower women’s prisons. She starts next month and will be promoted to Captain next year.
She said she would always feel a bond with the Brunswick Salvos.
“Before I started coming here 10 years ago, just as a part of the congregation, I could honestly say I’d never met a homeless person. And just the love and generosity of spirit, it just shattered every stereotype that I had.
“Just getting to know people, and the value of hearing their stories and walking alongside them has been just such a privilege.”
Recently, the Brunswick Citadel has been forced by financial constraints to wind back its services and opening hours, but two new officers will soon be announced for the Merri-bek Corps.
Support independent local journalism
We are an independent hyperlocal news organisation owned and run by the people in your community. With your support, we can continue to produce unique and valuable local journalism for Brunswick and the inner north of Melbourne.
