William James House

His name was William James House. He was married to my mother's aunties. First Essie Doberer and upon her death, Hazel Doberer.
I remember him well. He taught me to play Scrabble. A warm, gentle man.

Birth 10th January, 1889
Death 16th July, 1963

He came from Sydney, Australia. He was one of the "right-hand men " of James Taylor, senior. The photograph above is taken from a group photograph, taken at Teignmouth, of the revision "committee" for the 1932 hymn book. Later in 1932 he was one of the group who went to China to visit Watchman Nee and the Chinese Brethren. Does anybody know what happened to him after the death of JT, senior, in 1953? Did he survive in fellowship until his death in 1963? Some of these close friends of his father were forced out by James Taylor, junior, notably A. E. Myles.

https://www.brethrenhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Lineham.Auckland.pdf

According the the pdf linked above, he was put out for a while during the 1940s:

"Auckland was on the international Brethren circuit, so occasionally its conferences were published by Stow Hill Bible Depot. In 1947 the Auckland assembly had hosted a conference restricted to invited Brethren, whereas the usual Exclusive Brethren conference was open to all the Brethren on the subject, which was, it seems, of worship to the Holy Spirit. This conference was attended by W. J. House of Sydney, from whom Australian Brethren had withdrawn for a period, although he had subsequently been restored."

On another note, if the older picture of him was taken in 1932, he was only 43 at the time... I appreciate life may have been harder in those days, but can we be sure about that date?

You will find the picture here:
http://discourses.org.uk/Bazlinton/
There are two pictures here, somewhat tentatively labelled as the Hymn Book Committee, but I believe the date is correct. I have seen another similar photograph elsewhere definitely identified as the Hymn Book revision committee and dated to 1931.

FWIW I asked Chatgpt, "The man in the photo appears to be in his 60s or 70s, based on his white beard, facial structure, and overall aged appearance."

ChatGPT is 'hallucinating' (as I think the term is). He does not have a beard, let alone a white one! The last time James Taylor, senior, visited Teignmouth was in 1939, so this would be the last possible date for the photograph. C. A Coates died in 1945.

The second picture linked to by Roger ('10 Lepers') is clearly taken at the same time and place, and also includes G W Ware who died 1933. So it seems 1931 or 2 is correct, and WJH was indeed in his early forties.