George John Bond

Who was George John Bond?

George John Bond was a Canadian Methodist minister, and missionary to China and Japan.

Born in St. John's, Newfoundland, Bond was the eldest son of Elizabeth Parsons and John Bond. The elder Bond, a native of Kingskerswell, Devon, was born in 1804 and migrated to St. John’s in the 1820s. George was brother to Sir Robert Bond, Newfoundland's premier from 1900 to 1909.

Educated at the General Protestant Academy, Bond was accepted as a candidate for the Methodist ministry in 1871. From there he entered into studies at Mount Allison Methodist College in Sackville, New Brunswick. His first assignment after graduation was to Gower Street Methodist Church in St. John’s as an assistant minister. Bond was ordained into the Methodist ministry at George Street Methodist Church on June 26, 1876.

Bond spent the next 14 years in service at many of the outlying communities of Newfoundland before taking up his last posting at Grand Bank in 1890. During his first 20 years in the ministry, Bond was actively involved in the governance of the Methodist Church in Newfoundland, serving on numerous boards and committees at various levels. In both 1885 and 1889, he filled the post of President of Conference.