Douglas Albert Raoul Aufranc
1892 - 1979
D.A.R. Aufranc, writer of "Far From All Care," Hymn #394 in the 1985 Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, was a physician and dentist in London. Inspired by the solitude he experienced during a vacation on the Sussex coast of England in 1940, Aufranc returned home to write this hymn celebrating the Sabbath and its respite from the cares of life.
D.A.R., Rollie, as he was known by his friends and family throughout his life, was a third generation Adventist. His grandfather, a professor of languages and translator, was one of the first converts to the church, due to the efforts of J. N. Andrews' work in Switzerland. His father, Paul, migrated to England while young and married a daughter of the well-known Armstrong family, leaders in the Adventist work. Both Paul and his wife became prominent and active members in the North London church. Rollie was their only child.
He became a well-known physician and served as an advisor for the Good Health Association, a group of Adventist medical institutions in Great Britain. Additionally, at the time of the coronation of King George VI in 1937, an article by Aufranc, "Fighting Against Death," was one of eleven featured in a church commemorative magazine published in Britain titled This Century of Wonders.
His son, Paul Raoul Aufranc, recently noted:
My father was one of those curious people who qualify as doctors but never practice medicine. In my father's case, he even qualified as a surgeon as well, without practicing. He worked as a dental surgeon, chiefly for the Hampstead General Outpatients Department, where he held a clinic one morning a week for many years.
Apart from the hymns that he composed for the SDA Church, he longed to be a successful composer of popular music, as played by the dance bands of the day. He did have some tunes and songs published, but paid for this to be done, I believe. The fact that they were not a success was a great
disappointment to him.
He was a regular contributor in the 1930s and early 1940s to the world church's official magazine, Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, later the Review and Herald, authoring both articles and poems. He also wrote practical articles on health, which appeared in the church's Life and Health magazine.
An article of his, "The Meaning of the Manger," was the lead story in a special 1938 Christmas issue of Present Truth, and yet another, "Is Lasting Peace Possible?," was presented in the following year's holiday issue of the same magazine. The question posed by the title of the article was uppermost in the minds of Britons since they had just declared war on Germany three months earlier, following the invasion of Poland by Germany.
Although it has been written that Aufranc did not enjoy good health in his later years and that he died in obscurity in a nursing home, his son wrote a clarifying note in 2011:
I do not know where the idea of my father's ill health has come from; perhaps from him, himself - he was always a great complainer. In fact, I never knew him to have a day's illness until just before he died. He recovered immediately but then suddenly died. With a different lifestyle, he would not have died when he did, on April 18, 1979, a month short of his 87th birthday. He could well have gone on
into his 90s. He chose to live at a home for the elderly in Truro after my mother died in 1972.
A friend of his, Charlotte G. Morton, who kept in contact with him was concerned when letters between them ceased in late 1979 and was upset by the fact that his death passed unnoticed and was not known outside the family until over a year later. Paul also commented about the family's friendship with the Mortons:
Charlotte Morton and her husband used to visit Cornwall. I remember picking them up in the car and
bringing them to visit us. Charlotte may have been concerned at first, when my father's letters to her stopped without her knowing that he had died, but then I began to write to her and continued to do so for fifteen years after my father's death. I still have copies of letters that I sent her.
In addition to the hymn chosen for inclusion in the 1985 SDA Hymnal, Aufranc also had two others published in the 1941 SDA Church Hymnal, "Alone With Thee," #335, and "There Is a Road," #374.
ds/2011
Sources: Paul Raoul Aufranc, emails in October and November 2011; Wayne H. Hooper and Edward E. White, Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, 1988, Review and Herald Publishing Association, 401; "In Memoriam" tribute to Aufranc by D. N. Marshall, published in the 13 March 1981 British Advent Messenger and other articles found in the 2 April 1937, 9 December 1938, and 8 December 1939 issues of the same magazine; and the obituary for his father, Paul, in the 11 April 1929 Advent Review and Sabbath Herald. His writings in the ARSH were published in the 16 July 1930, 25 December 1930, 1 January 1931, 10 December 1931, 24 December 1936, and 25 September 1941 issues.