Frederick Sinclaire was born and educated in New Zealand. After receiving an MA he studied theology at Oxford University with the financial support of the Unitarian Church. Posted to Melbourne as a minister of the Unitarian Church, he became well-known for his socialist views, opposing other clergymen on issues such as prostitution, drinking and gambling by arguing that these were social not moral problems.
Involved with the Victorian Socialist Party and Melbourne's Fabian Society, Sinclaire became acquainted with other socialists such as Bernard O'Dowd, Vance Palmer, Louis Esson and Frank Wilmot. His association with socialist groups was tolerated by the Unitarian Church, but members objected when he began to host meetings of the Fabian society on church property.
In 1911 he left the Unitarian church, but was encouraged to stay in Melbourne by a group of followers who later formed the Free Religious Fellowship and financed a small salary to support Sinclaire as minister. Sinclaire co-edited the Socialist with Marie Pitt in 1911 and 1912, before the Free Religious Fellowship established its own magazine, Fellowship, in 1914 with Sinclaire as editor.
In 1917 he became the Principal and tutor of the newly formed Victorian Labor College. Several years later he was a part-time lecturer at the University of Melbourne, but, by 1929, after failing to secure a full-time position he was recruited by the University of Western Australia. Three years later he moved to New Zealand as Chair of English at the Canterbury University College, remaining there until his retirement in 1946.
Sinclaire was a prolific essayist but published only three collections, the first, Annotations, appeared in 1920 and the last, A Time to Laugh and Other Essays, in 1951. Frederick Sinclaire died in 1954.
