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George Hubbard was director of the Echo Publishing House between 1898 and 1900.

Photo courtesy of South Pacific Division Heritage Centre.

Hubbard, George (1852–1926)

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.

First Published: January 29, 2020 | Last Updated: April 6, 2022

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George Hubbard was a Seventh-day Adventist pastor in Australia at the beginning of the twentieth century. For a time, he was superintendent of the Helping Hand Mission in Melbourne and at the same time director of the Echo Publishing Company.

Hubbard was born in England in 1852 and emigrated to Australia with his parents when he was eight years old. The family settled in Melbourne, Victoria, and he later entered employment in the engineering department of the Victorian Railways.1 In 1876, he married Sarah Ambery, a fellow English immigrant three years younger than himself.2 They joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1895 and Hubbard became a ministerial worker with the Victorian Conference.

First reports of Hubbard’s evangelistic work appeared in 1898 when it was mentioned that he had been assisting at the Balaclava tent crusade in suburban Melbourne. To enrich his understanding of his new faith, he sailed that year to Sydney with his family in order to enroll at the Avondale School for Christian Workers that had just been established in Cooranbong, New South Wales.3 As a senior student, he was called on to lead the Week of Prayer meetings at the Ashfield church in suburban Sydney.4 His time at Avondale was brief, only one semester. Then he returned to Melbourne as a delegate at the Central Australian Conference session in August.5 At that time, he was nominated to be the first superintendent of the fledgling Helping Hand Mission which opened as a charitable enterprise on September 12, 1898, in central Melbourne.6 During his time at the Helping Hand Mission, from 1898 through 1900, he also served as director of the Echo Publishing Company.7

Late in 1900, Hubbard was appointed to the Ballarat district, nurturing the church members, selling books door-to-door, and giving Bible studies to interested individuals.8 It was his first experience at selling books. In 1902, he was elected the general agent supervising booksellers throughout Victoria.9 His seniority and sound judgment were evident with repeated nominations for him to be a representative delegate at Australasian Union Conference sessions.10 At this time, he also ventured to publish at least two devotional articles in the church periodicals, Bible Echo and Signs of the Times.11

George served as Bible teacher and chaplain at the Sydney Sanitarium and Hospital, 1914 through 1916,12 except for a three-month period in 1915 when he was asked to act as president of the Tasmanian Conference until permanent arrangements could be made.13 Except for two years as chaplain at the Sydney Sanitarium and Hospital, 1914 and 1915,14 Hubbard spent the remainder of his service in pastoral ministry in four different Australian conferences. He was ordained in Queensland in 1910.15 His pastoral ministry had begun in Victoria and he returned there for twelve months in 1913 and again in 1923 through 1925.16 Other years were spent in the South Australia Conference, 1906-1907, 1917-1921,17 the Queensland Conference, 1908-1912,18 and the New South Wales Conference, 1916 and 1922.19 For most of his career he served on the executive committees of the conferences where he was working at the time, his experience and wisdom being highly valued.20

After an extended illness Hubbard died at his home in Melbourne on April 7, 1926. His eulogy spoke of him as a “faithful beloved pastor of God’s flock.”21 His wife Sarah died on September 2, 1931. Their three daughters married church workers Louis Currow, Leo Rose, and William Chapman.22

Sources

“Annual Meeting of the Echo Publishing Co. Ltd.” Bible Echo, September 24, 1900.

City of Melbourne. Marriage Certificates# no. 3338 (1876). George Hubbard and Sarah Ambery. State Government of Victoria Registry Office of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Melbourne, Victoria.

“Conference Notes.” Bible Echo, August 5, 1901.

Craddock, Tho[ma]s H. “The Queensland Conference.” Australasian Record, July 11, 1910.

“Distribution of Labour.” Australasian Record, July 5, 1915.

Hare, R[obert]. “Victorian Camp Meeting.” Bible Echo, December 22, 1902.

Hubbard, G[eorge]. “Lovest Thou Me?” Bible Echo, January 27, 1902.

Hubbard, G[eorge]. “The Helping Hand Mission.” Bible Echo, November 21, 1898.

Hubbard, G[eorge]. “Thoughts on the Rainbow.” Bible Echo, April 14, 1902.

Imrie, L[eslie] J. “Sarah Hubbard,” Australasian Record, September 28, 1931.

“On Wednesday, March 23, Bro. George Hubbard...” Bible Echo, April 4, 1898.

“Opening of the Helping Hand and Medical Mission.” Bible Echo, September 26, 1898.

Pascoe, W[illiam] H. “George Hubbard.” Australasian Record, May 3, 1926.

“Personal.” Union Conference Record, July 1, 1900.

Robinson, A[sa] T. “Central Australia Conference.” Bible Echo, August 29, 1898.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbooks. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1906-1926.

“While the State of Tasmania has been set apart….” Australasian Record, March 19, 1915.

White, W[illiam] C. “Reports from the Week of Prayer.” Bible Echo, July 11, 1898.

Notes

  1. W[illiam] H. Pascoe, “George Hubbard,” Australasian Record, May 3, 1926, 5.↩

  2. City of Melbourne, Marriage Certificate no. 3338 (1876), State Government of Victoria Registry Office of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Melbourne, Victoria.↩

  3. “On Wednesday, March 23, Bro. George Hubbard...,” Bible Echo, April 4, 1898, 112.↩

  4. W[illiam] C. White, “Reports from the Week of Prayer,” Bible Echo, July 11, 1898, 221.↩

  5. A[sa] T. Robinson, “Central Australian Conference,” Bible Echo, August 29, 1898, 277.↩

  6. G[eorge] Hubbard, “The Helping Hand Mission,” Bible Echo, November 21, 1898, 373; “Opening of the Helping Hand and Medical Mission,” Bible Echo, September 26, 1898, 306-307.↩

  7. E.g., “Annual Meeting of the Echo Publishing Co. Ltd.,” Bible Echo, September 24, 1900, 625.↩

  8. “Personal,” Union Conference Record, July 1, 1900, 15.↩

  9. R[obert] Hare, “Victorian Camp Meeting,” Bible Echo, December 22, 1902, 411.↩

  10. E.g., “Conference Notes,” Bible Echo, August 5, 1901, 512.↩

  11. E.g., G[eorge] Hubbard, “Lovest Thou Me?” Bible Echo, January 27, 1902, 35.↩

  12. E.g., “Ministerial Directory,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1915), 223.↩

  13. “While the State of Tasmania has now been set apart…,” Australasian Record, March 19, 1915, 8; “Distribution of Labour,” Australasian Record, July 5, 1915, 3-4.↩

  14. E.g., “Ministerial Directory,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1915), 223.↩

  15. Tho[ma]s H. Craddock, “The Queensland Conference,” Australasian Record, July 11, 1910, 2-4.↩

  16. E.g., “Victoria-Tasmania Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1924), 174.↩

  17. E.g., “South Australia Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1920), 194.↩

  18. E.g., “Queensland Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1912), 99.↩

  19. E.g., New South Wales, North Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1923), 165.↩

  20. E.g., “South Australia Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1919), 171-172.↩

  21. W[illiam] H. Pascoe, “George Hubbard,” Australasian Record, May 3, 1926, 5.↩

  22. L[eslie] J. Imrie, “Sarah Hubbard,” Australasian Record, September 28, 1931, 7.↩

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Hook, Milton. "Hubbard, George (1852–1926)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. April 06, 2022. Accessed April 22, 2025. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=8I7G.

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Hook, Milton. "Hubbard, George (1852–1926)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. April 06, 2022. Date of access April 22, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=8I7G.

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Hook, Milton (2022, April 06). Hubbard, George (1852–1926). Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved April 22, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=8I7G.

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