Reverend Royappan Balavendrum was born in Tanjore, South India in 1826. His father, Royappan, was a civil servant and his mother was Selvanayagi. His parents were baptised in the late 18th century by Rev Frederick Schwartz of the German Lutheran Church.

Balavendrum was a third-generation Christian. He attended the Madras Christian College and the SPG (Society for the Propagation of the Gospel) Seminary in Tanjore and graduated in 1849. He was then posted to Secunderabad for 11 years. In 1866 he was appointed a probationary for Holy Orders under the supervision of the Tamil scholar, Dr G.U. Pope. 

He arrived in Penang on February 19, 1871 at the age of 45 under the SPG and Rev Julian Moreton to help build an Anglican parish among the Indian community in Penang. In 1876, his wife died. He remarried in 1884 and had two sons – Louis and Matthew Balavendrum.

Balavendrum was a pioneer of Tamil work. His first concern in his pastoral ministry was for the scattered Christians from India who had come to Penang seeking work in the new sugar plantations and rubber estates which had been opened in Province Wellesley. These Christians who made up seven per cent of the total Indian population in Malaya needed to be fed, housed and spiritually nurtured. The Indian population then was transitory. Although Balavendrum came to Malaya to minister to the Indian Christians, he was also motivated by a strong caring and evangelistic concern for all Indians.

Though he was a deacon, he was designated and appointed a catechist. (The diocese had to depend on the catechist, the fourth order, for the early pastoral and evangelistic ministries in Malaya.) He was instrumental in the founding of the Tamil Anglican group called the St George's Tamil Association, carried out with the support of a British chaplain.

In Penang, he held services in homes until a chapel was built behind St George' s Church in 1886. This was later largely destroyed in a Japanese raid. The parsonage was rebuilt when Rev C.F.A. Samuel was serving in Penang. The British were not  interested in building a Tamil church. It was only about 120 years later that a Tamil Missionary District came into being with the establishment of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Penang. 

Balavendrum’s mission approach was two-pronged: active evangelism and caring ministry. His passion for Tamil evangelism came with risks. The Ven A.C.H. Peatfield, former Archdeacon of North Malaya and Vicar of St George's Church Penang, said:

“As far as Penang is concerned the Tamil mission from the beginning was over burdened with school administration, and the need to care for the scattered Tamil families though it is recorded that the Rev Balavendrum was for a time in some considerable danger through converting two Indian Muslims. To these inherent problems of the work must be added the limitations on Tamil higher education."

“The two main concerns, as shown above, were evangelism and education… Balavendrum visited the estates in Province Wellesley. He had to cross the Straits on a simple boat which took about 4-6 hours, depending on the condition of the sea. He had to walk about 35 miles or go by bullock cart. His visitation included Pyre Estate, Bukit Tengah, Caledonia and Batu Kawan, among others. He also took a risk in visiting Larut District in Perak which experienced lawless disorder then and the British had not taken over Perak completely. All Saints' Taiping was built only in 1887.”

The Bishop, in his report to the SPG in 1885, said the Hindu converts accompanied him and the Mission agents. Balavendrum preached to the Hindus about Jesus Christ and between 1888 and 1892, he baptised 51 adults in St Georges' Church.

Balavendrum was the first to open an Anglo-Tamil school in Penang. It was recognised that education would transform the Tamil community, and he believed that the future of the ministry lay in the schools. Because of caste sensitivities, he had to work out his strategy carefully. In 1873, he founded the St. George’s Anglo-Tamil school with the assistance of the government and also secured “government grant-in-aid”. Religious knowledge was part of the curriculum at the school. Many of the students who sat for religious examinations were Hindus and Muslims. He was instrumental in building a school chapel and a mission house on a site behind St Georges' Church. In 1911, a hostel facility was added to the boys' school.

Balavendrum died in 1912 at the age of 85.