Background
Cyril Bavin was born in Nelson, New Zealand, and was one of nine children of the Review Rainsford Bavin, a Methodist minister from Lincolnshire, England, and his New Zealand-born wife Emma, née Buddle.
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Cyril Bavin
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He was an advocate of child migration and his views are still being debated more than half a century after his death. Bavin Snr arrived in New Zealand in 1867 and was appointed to Christchurch. His family moved to Sydney from Auckland in 1889 and his father took charge of the William Street Church.
Nothing is known of Bavin"s education until he attended Newington College as a day boy in 1893 and 1894 from the family"s then home in Ashfield.
As the son of a Methodist minister he was on half-fees. After returning from India he became a student at the Wesleyan Theological Institution which was then based in the grounds of Newington College.
After his ordination in 1903 Bavin undertook mission work in Fiji. In 1914, Bavin contributed a chapter, The Indian in Fiji, to the book, A century in the Pacific, edited by James Colwell with an introduction by William Henry Fitchett.
Bavin became a military secretary to the during World War I and was made an honorary major.
He represented the on the Children"s Overseas Reception Board. He later became an advocate of British migration to the Dominions. In the 1920s, Bavin proposed child migration schemes for British children to be sent to Australia and New Zealand.
He advocated the broadening of the basis of individual nomination of a prospective migrant to its extension from individuals to Church congregations, service clubs, friendly societies and lodges.
Bavin was awarded the Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1928.
