ROBERTSON, ALEXANDER WILLIAM (1880-1955)

ROBERTSON, ALEXANDER WILLIAM, United Church minister, Millerton, 1926-32 and 1948-54; b. Centerdale, Pictou Co., N.S., 15 Aug 1880, s/o James Robertson and Elizabeth MacKenzie; m. 1914, Jeanette Ross, of Boston; d. Kemptville, Ont., 10 Mar 1955.

After studying at Pictou Academy, Alexander W. Robertson taught school for some time in his home county. He then resumed his education at Dalhousie University (BA 1912) and was trained for the ministry at the Presbyterian College in Halifax. Ordained in 1913, he served in Great Village and Belmont, N.S., as well as in Kensington, P.E.I., prior to the formation of the United Church of Canada in 1925.

After the Rev. William McN. Matthews left Millerton in 1924 the Presbyterian charge was served on a supply basis, mostly by the Rev. Joseph S. MacKay, a former roving evangelist of Nova Scotia origin. At the same time, the Rev. Robert M. Brodie was the minister of the Methodist congregation, and under his guidance the Methodists and a majority of the Presbyterians organized a new United Church of Canada charge, with churches at Millerton, Chelmsford, and Williamstown. Brodie then departed, and the Rev. Alexander W. Robertson was called to the pastorate in June 1926.

Robertson stayed at Millerton about six years, conducting there, as elsewhere, a ministry in which evangelism and social service were emphasized. Then after having three more pastorates in Nova Scotia he came back to Millerton in 1948 and again served six years, until his retirement in the summer of 1954. He moved to Kemptville, Ont., at that time and died there less than a year later, at age seventy-four. He was survived by his wife, Jeanette Ross, three daughters, and two sons. One of his sons was a scientist with the National Research Council of Canada and the other a medical doctor in British Columbia.