[Taken from Manx Wesleyan Church Record 1894]

Character Sketch of the late Henry Thomas McIver, of Douglas

We. present our readers with a picture of one of the truest, most unselfish and universally respected Manx Methodists this Island has ever known. Henry Thomas McIver lived prominently before the eyes countrymen and was so well known as a devoted lover of his Church and of all good movements that readers of the Record will be glad to possess in permanent form the likeness of their lamented friend. Mr McIver, though bearing a Scotch name, was a genuine Manxman. He was born in this Island on the 13th of December, 1826. In 1845 he was apprenticed as a joiner to Mr Richard Cowle. So faithfully and well did he serve his master, that on the completion of his term he was appointed manager of his master's business. Throughout life he kept himself loose to material things. Had he made wealth the one thing to be aimed at, it would doubtless have been secured. He had the ball at his feet. But he centred his objects on greater things, and his record is on high. There is something richer than riches, and Henry Thomas McIver secured that, and hence it is "the memory of the just is blessed".

Mr McIver became a local preacher early in life, and was everywhere acceptable. His expositions were always logical, and based upon spiritual truth, carefully sought out by study and research, there being no. attempt. to hide. the truth for the sake of pleasing men.

For many years he filled the office of Class Leader, as well as Chapel Steward at Victoria-street. He was also Trustee for several of our Churches in the Island, and his sympathy and practical help could always be relied upon in connection with every good movement. He was one of the prime movers in the scheme for the erection of Rose Mount Church — the cathedral fabric of insular Wesleyanism, as it, has not inaptly been called — and upon its inception was appointed Secretary of the Building Committee. He filled the highest office which it is possible for a Layman to occuppy in Methodism, being Circuit Steward for a period of six years. He also held the office of District Treasurer of the Worn Out Ministers' Fund and Treasurer of the Children's Fund. In1879 he represented the Isle of Man District at the annual Conference held at Birmingham. To many Mr McIver was perhaps best known as a temperance man. From deep conviction he was a life long teetotaller, and alike in the pulpit, in the home, on the public platform, and in the club and committee-room he sought to advance the temperance cause. Of all men in the Island he attained the highest position in Rechabitism, both in the Island District and at the High Moveable Conferences of the Salford Unity in England, to which the insular District is affiliated.

His last public appearance in Douglas was at the annual Society Tea Meeting, held at Thomas-street Schoolroom, on Thursday evening, October 29th, 1891, and his speech is remembered still for its practical and stirring appeals to duty and service. On the following Sunday evening he preached at Union Mills, and on the eve of Saturday, November 7th, and in his sixty-fourth year "God touched him, and he slept". "Devout men carried him to his burial and made great lamentations over him".

He would appear to have been illegitimate son of Henry McIver and Jane Corkill bapt Douglas St George's 30th Dec 1827, in 1841 living with his unmarried mother and widowed grandmother in Hanover St - married Jane Cain at Braddan 4th May 1858.