Matthew Hale (bishop)

Matthew Hale (bishop)

Matthew Blagden Hale (18 June 1811 – 3 April 1895) was the first Bishop of Perth and then the Bishop of Brisbane.

Born in Alderley, Gloucestershire, England, Matthew Hale was the son of Robert and Lady Theodosia (née Bourke). His maternal grandfather was The Earl of Mayo, Lord Archbishop of Tuam. After completing his education at Wotton-under-Edge, he attended Trinity College, Cambridge, and obtained his B.A. in 1835 and M.A. in 1838. He was eventually conferred an honorary D.D. as well. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1836.

In 1840, Hale married Sophia Clode, which whom he would have three children before her death in 1845. He became Archdeacon of Adelaide in 1847. The following year he married Sabina, daughter of John and Georgiana Molloy. In 1855, Hale returned to England without his family. The following July he arrived in Western Australia on the Guyon, and in November his family arrived there from South Australia. In March 1857, Hale returned to England with his family, where on 25 July 1857 he was consecrated as the first Bishop of Perth in a ceremony at the Lambeth Palace Chapel.

Returning to Western Australia on the Nile early in 1858, he took office as Bishop of Perth, and that year opened the first Boys' College in the colony. Modelled after England's public schools, it remains the oldest boys' school in Western Australia, and has been renamed Hale School in his honour.

Matthew Hale was Bishop of Perth until 1875, whereupon he became Bishop of Brisbane until 1885. He eventually returned to England, retiring at Clifton, Bristol where he died on 3 April 1895.

A statue of Bishop Hale was erected outside the Cloisters in central Perth in March 2008.