ROBB, ALEXANDER FRANCIS (1872-1935)

ROBB, ALEXANDER FRANCIS, Presbyterian missionary, Upper Southwest Miramichi, 1898-1901; b. Saint John, 19 Jan 1872, s/o William Robb and Marion McCrindle; m. 1901, Bessie Arnott Cumming, BA, of Westville, N.S.; d. Pyeng Yang, Korea, 22 Oct 1935.

It has been stated that the first Presbyterian congregation at Doaktown was organized in 1879. A church was built in 1881. Student ministers were sometimes posted there in the summers in the 1880s and 90s, and the Rev. Thomas G. Johnstone of Blackville was a visiting preacher at other times of the year, but Alexander F. Robb would appear to have been the first ordained Presbyterian minister to be stationed there or elsewhere on the Upper Southwest Miramichi. He was educated at Dalhousie University (BA 1896) and trained for the ministry at the Presbyterian College in Halifax. Ordained in 1898, he spent three years as a missionary in the Doaktown and Boiestown area as preparation for overseas missionary service.

In 1901 Robb and his "bride" left to join in the work of the Presbyterian mission which had been established in Korea in 1898. The rest of his ministry was conducted there, and the work in which he and his wife were engaged was strongly supported by the church in Canada. In 1930 he was appointed to the chair in church history at the Union Theological College at Pyeng Yang, Korea. After his death was announced in 1935 the United Church publication, The New Outlook, stated that, "up and down the Miramichi River, where his first ministry was located, he is still remembered for his serious and holy life and leadership." He was survived by his wife, Bessie A. Cumming, and three sons.