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Australasian Division Committee, 1921. C. H. Pretyman is in the second row, second from the left.

From Australasian Record, January 29, 1968.

Pretyman, Cecil Herbert (1875–1965)

By Milton Hook

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Milton Hook, Ed.D. (Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, the United States). Hook retired in 1997 as a minister in the Greater Sydney Conference, Australia. An Australian by birth Hook has served the Church as a teacher at the elementary, academy and college levels, a missionary in Papua New Guinea, and as a local church pastor. In retirement he is a conjoint senior lecturer at Avondale College of Higher Education. He has authored Flames Over Battle Creek, Avondale: Experiment on the Dora, Desmond Ford: Reformist Theologian, Gospel Revivalist, the Seventh-day Adventist Heritage Series, and many magazine articles. He is married to Noeleen and has two sons and three grandchildren.

Cecil Herbert Pretyman was an Adventist literature evangelist, financial administer, chaplain, and pastor in South Africa and Australia.

Early Years

Cecil Herbert Pretyman was born in Hobart, Tasmania, on September 20, 1875, to Charles and Amy (Chapman) Pretyman.1 His family became Seventh-day Adventists in 1888 under the ministry of Elders Mendel Israel and William Baker.2 Pretyman trained as a clerk before entering denominational employment.3

Record of Service

At twenty-two years of age Pretyman resigned from his secular employment and joined the denomination’s Echo Publishing Company (EPC) in Melbourne, Victoria, as an office clerk in 1897.4 He attended the nearby North Fitzroy Seventh-day Adventist church and took an active part in its ministry, serving as librarian,5 singing in their vocal quartet,6 accepting the role of an occasional lay preacher,7 leading in the Sabbath School, and drumming in the company brass band.8

In 1902, the enterprising manager of the EPC, Wilbur Salisbury, arranged with the South African Union Conference (SAUC) to open a sales outlet in Durban, Natal, for their books. James Camp would go as a trainer of literature evanglists and Pretyman was chosen to serve as the treasurer and ledger keeper for the branch office. As a parting gift, Salisbury pressed into his hand a purse of gold sovereigns.9 In May 1902, Pretyman and Camp sailed from Melbourne on the Narrung” bound for Durban.10 On July 31, Camp’s family and Katherine “Kate” Judge followed.11 On arrival in Durban, Katherine Judge and Cecil Pretyman were married. Born in Hobart, Tasmania, on June 3, 1874, to George and Christina (Monks) Judge,12 Katherine Judge had trained as a government school teacher and later, on return from South Africa, became the first teacher at the Warburton Adventist elementary school.13

While Camp was training other people to sell books, Pretyman himself began canvassing Bible Readings.14 For a short time, reports of the enterprise appeared in the quarterly Australasian canvassing summaries but it was not long before the SAUC found the resources to absorb the territory.15 According to the original agreement, the EPC then became a wholesale vendor and Camp and Pretyman found themselves under different employment arrangements. Pretyman became secretary/treasurer and business manager of the newly formed Natal-Transvaal Conference in 1904.16 He returned to the EPC in 1905 and moved with it to Warburton when it was renamed the Signs Publishing Company.17

In 1907, Pretyman was appointed secretary/treasurer of the West Australian Conference, a position he held for two years.18 It was during this period, on March 26, 1908, that the Pretyman’s only child, Robert Geoffrey, was born in Perth.19 In 1909, Pretyman was appointed to the Australasian Union Conference (AUC) office in Burwood, suburban Sydney.20 The office later moved to Wahroonga. During the years 1909 through 1921, Cecil served in various roles such as, treasurer (1909-1910, 1919-1920),21 secretary (1917-1918),22 or the combined task of secretary/treasurer (1912-1916).23 For a short period in 1911, he worked as auditor.24 From 1914 through 1921, he was also a member of the financial advisory committee and secretary/treasurer of the legal entity entitled Australasian Conference Association, Limited.25 A memorable highlight of his time at the AUC was a trip to New Guinea in 1913. From Port Moresby, he walked with pioneering missionary Septimus Carr into the mountains on at least two occasions. The major benefit of the trips was apparently moral support for Carr, for, at the time, there were no real results from the New Guinea enterprise and Carr was understandably downcast.26

The 1920s witnessed a number of short-term managers of the Sydney Sanitarium. Pretyman was one manager, beginning in 1925 through 1927.27 In 1927, he moved to chaplaincy work in the same institution. In this latter capacity, he served until 1934. There followed fourteen years in pastoral ministry in the South New South Wales Conference, later the Greater Sydney Conference, where he held a ministerial license but without ordination.28 Throughout his ministry, Pretyman published many articles in the denominational periodical Australasian Record, including one about the history of the Wahroonga church.29

Retirement

Cecil and Kate Pretyman remained in familiar Wahroonga during retirement. Kate Pretyman died on December 21, 1959.30 Cecil Pretyman passed away on September 23, 1965, and was laid to rest in the nearby Northern Suburbs cemetery.31

Sources

“Across the Sea.” The Bible Echo, May 12, 1902.

Ballingall, A[lexander]. “Report of the North Fitzroy Church of S.D. Adventists.” The Bible Echo, January 24, 1898.

Cecil Herbert Pretyman Biographical Information. South Pacific Division of the General Conference Archives, Wahroonga, New South Wales.

“Cecil Herbert Pretyman.” FamilySearch. International Reserve, 2019. Accessed May 20, 2019. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/find/name?search=1&birth=Hobart% 2CTasmania%2CAustralia%7C1874-1878%7C0&self=cecilherbert% 7C0pretyman% 7C0%7C0&spouse=kathleen%7Cjudge%7C0%7C0.

“Monthly Summary of Australasian, Natal, and Cape Colony Canvassing Work.” Union Conference Record, December 1, 1902.

“Notes of Progress.” The Bible Echo, August 20, 1900.

“Personals.” The Bible Echo, April 7, 1902.

“Personals.” The Bible Echo, May 12, 1902.

Pretyman, C[ecil] H. “Call to Remembrance [of] the Former Days.” Australasian Record, July 31, 1933.

Pretyman, C[ecil] H. “Travels in New Guinea.” Australasian Record, January 5, 1914.

Salisbury, W[ilbur] D. “Annual Address to the Stockholders of the Echo Publishing Company, Limited.” The Bible Echo, supplement, September 29, 1902.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1904-1949.

Tudor, Ralph. “A Brief Life Sketch of C. H. Pretyman.” Australasian Record and Advent World Survey, November 15, 1965.

Tudor, Ralph. “Cecil Herbert Pretyman.” Australasian Record and Advent World Survey, November 15, 1965.

Tudor, Ralph. “Kate (Judge) Pretyman.” Australasian Record and Advent World Survey, February 8, 1960.

“The Work and Workers.” The Bible Echo, August 11, 1902.

Notes

  1. “Cecil Herbert Pretyman,” FamilySearch, Intellectual Reserve, 2019, accessed May 20, 2019, https://www.familysearch.org/tree/find/name?search=1&birth=Hobart%2CTasmania%2CAustralia%7C1874-1878%7C0&self=cecilherbert%7Cpretyman%7C0%7C0&spouse=kathleen%7Cjudge%7C0%7C0.↩

  2. Ralph Tudor, “A Brief Life Sketch of C.H. Pretyman,” Australasian Record and Advent World Survey, November 15, 1965, 6-7.↩

  3. Cecil Herbert Pretyman Biographical Information; South Pacific Division of the General Conference Archives; Folder: ‘Cecil Herbert Pretyman.’ Document: “Cecil Herbert Pretyman Biographical Information.”↩

  4. Ralph Tudor, “A Brief Life Sketch of C.H. Pretyman,” Australasian Record and Advent World Survey, November 15, 1965, 6-7.↩

  5. A[lexander] Ballingall, “Report of the North Fitzroy Church of S.D. Adventists,” The Bible Echo, January 24, 1898, 29.↩

  6. “Notes of Progress,” The Bible Echo, August 20, 1900, 9.↩

  7. “Personals,” The Bible Echo, April 7, 1902, 2.↩

  8. “Across the Sea,” The Bible Echo, May 12, 1902, 5.↩

  9. Ibid.↩

  10. “Personals,” The Bible Echo, May 12, 1902, 8.↩

  11. W[ilbur] D. Salisbury, “Annual Address to the Stockholders of the Echo Publishing Company, Limited,” The Bible Echo, supplement, September 29, 1902, 1-4.↩

  12. “Cecil Herbert Pretyman,” FamilySearch, Intellectual Reserve, 2019, accessed May 20, 2019, https://www.familysearch.org/tree/find/name?search=1&birth=Hobart%2CTasmania%2CAustralia%7C1874-1878%7C0&self=cecilherbert%7Cpretyman%7C0%7C0&spouse=kathleen%7Cjudge%7C07C0↩

  13. Ralph Tudor, “Kate (Judge) Pretyman obituary,” Australasian Record and Advent World Survey, February 1960, 7.↩

  14. “The Work and Workers,” The Bible Echo, August 11, 1902. 7.↩

  15. E.g., “Monthly Summary of Australasian, Natal, and Cape Colony Canvassing Work,” Union Conference Record, December 1, 1902, 7.↩

  16. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1904), 71.↩

  17. Ralph Tudor, “A Brief Sketch of C.H. Pretyman,” Australasian Record and Advent World Survey, November 15, 1965, 6-7.↩

  18. Ibid.↩

  19. Cecil Herbert Pretyman Biographical Information, South Pacific Division of the General Conference Archives, folder: “Cecil Herbert Pretyman,” document: “Cecil Herbert Pretyman Biographical Information.”↩

  20. “Australasian Union Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1909), 92.↩

  21. E.g., “Australasian Union Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1920), 189-190.↩

  22. E.g., “Australasian Union Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1917), 138-139.↩

  23. E.g., “Australasian Union Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1912), 95-96.↩

  24. “Australasian Union Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1911), 89-90.↩

  25. E.g., “Australasian Union Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1914), 131-132.↩

  26. C[ecil] H. Pretyman, “Travels in New Guinea,” Australasian Record, January 5, 1914, 3.↩

  27. E.g., “Sydney Sanitarium,” Seventh-day Advent Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1926), 288-289.↩

  28. E.g., “South New South Wales Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1938), 73; Ralph Tudor, “A Brief Life Sketch of C. H. Pretyman,” Australasian Record and Advent World Survey, November 15, 1965, 6-7.↩

  29. C[ecil] H. Pretyman, “Call to Remembrance [of] the Former Days,” Australasian Record, July 31, 1933, 1-2.↩

  30. Ralph Tudor, “Kate (Judge) Pretyman obituary,” Australasian Record and Advent World Survey, February 8, 1960, 7.↩

  31. Ralph Tudor, “Cecil Herbert Pretyman obituary,” Australasian Record and Advent World Survey, November 15, 1965, 7.↩

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Hook, Milton. "Pretyman, Cecil Herbert (1875–1965)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. June 01, 2020. Accessed September 21, 2020. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=5830.

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Hook, Milton. "Pretyman, Cecil Herbert (1875–1965)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. June 01, 2020. Date of access September 21, 2020, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=5830.

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Hook, Milton (2020, June 01). Pretyman, Cecil Herbert (1875–1965). Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved September 21, 2020, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=5830.

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