31 Facts About Rodger Page

Rodger Clarence George Page was an Australian missionary and religious leader in Tonga.

Rodger Page was royal chaplain and advisor to Queen Salote for over 20 years and a long-serving president of the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga, the de facto state church.

Rodger Page trained for the Methodist ministry in Sydney and was posted to Tonga in 1908.

Rodger Page played a key role in the 1924 reunification of the Methodist churches in Tonga and served as president of the Free Wesleyan Church from 1925 to 1946.

Rodger Page retired to Sydney but continued to visit Tonga regularly, with his ashes being returned to Tonga after his death for interment in a royal burial ground.

Rodger Page was born on 17 October 1878 in Grafton, New South Wales, the fourth of eleven children born to Mary and Charles Rodger Page.

Rodger Page was raised on his father's property on Chatsworth Island in the Clarence River.

Rodger Page's parents were devout Methodists and a number of family members held church offices.

Rodger Page was educated at Grafton Public School and worked as his father's bookkeeper before moving to Sydney to train for the Methodist ministry at the Wesleyan Theological Institution.

Rodger Page was posted to Murrurundi and Quirindi before volunteering for overseas service as a missionary in 1908.

In 1908, Rodger Page was appointed chairman of the Wesleyan Mission in Tonga, a district of the Methodist Church of Australasia.

The Wesleyan Mission had been a minority denomination since an 1885 schism resulted in the establishment of the Free Church of Tonga as an independent body under the patronage of King George Tupou I The schism was largely due to interpersonal conflict between church leaders, and Page arrived at a time when the relationship between the rival churches had begun to thaw.

Rodger Page succeeded veteran missionary James Egan Moulton as the dominant figure in the Wesleyan Mission, soon mastering the Tongan language and preaching in "stirring idiomatic Tongan".

Rodger Page was involved in the growth of Queen Salote College and the establishment of a government scholarship scheme for Tongan students to attend Newington College in Sydney.

In 1912 Rodger Page married Hannah Morrison, with whom he had one son.

Rodger Page gained respect among the local population by lobbying on their behalf to William Telfer Campbell, the British consul, and assisting with relief efforts after hurricanes and the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.

Collocott recalled that during the flu pandemic Rodger Page "dispensed medicines to hundreds of people who came to him, and then, sick himself, he put his life in pawn and with horse and sulky, drove about the villages, distributing medicine, inspiring hope and courage".

Rodger Page played an important role in the reunification of the Methodist Mission with the Free Church of Tonga, an initiative spearheaded by Queen Salote after her accession in 1918.

Rodger Page developed a close relationship with Salote through his friendship with her husband, Viliami Tungi Mailefihi, who had attended Wesleyan schools and been educated in Sydney.

In 1925, Rodger Page was elected president of the Free Wesleyan Church in place of Manu, whose marriage to a teenage girl had caused a scandal.

Rodger Page would be re-elected at every annual conference until his retirement in 1946.

Rodger Page acknowledged Salote as the temporal head of the church, which had previously been a source of conflict between Watkin and Salote, and "did nothing of importance in the Church without consulting the Queen".

In 1926 Rodger Page oversaw the church's formal affiliation with the Methodist Church of Australasia as an independent, self-governing Methodist conference.

Rodger Page unsuccessfully sought the intervention of the Privy Council of Tonga to enforce existing leases, and subsequently "acquired a reputation for being very canny in his negotiations with individual nobles".

Rodger Page advised Salote on economic matters, representing Tonga at an economic conference in Auckland in 1936 and seeking advice from his brother Earle Rodger Page, a former federal treasurer of Australia.

Rodger Page was appointed as royal chaplain after the Methodist reunification in 1924, having impressed Salote with his discretion and patience during the process.

Rodger Page was both her spiritual director and an advisor on secular matters, serving as an interpreter and translating her speeches into English.

Rodger Page was one of the only papalangi with easy access to the Royal Palace.

Tungi died two years later in 1941, with Rodger Page supporting Salote through her own grieving process.

In retirement, Rodger Page regularly met with Salote on her visits to Australia.

Rodger Page continued to call on him for advice, including on the prospect of abdication which he counselled against.