Emily Dora Earthy (known as Dora Earthy) worked as a missionary in Portugese East Africa (Mozambique) for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, from September 1917 to December 1930. She then obtained a grant from the Research Committee of Bantu Studies of the University of Witwatersrand, to cover six month's fieldwork among the Valenge women of that country, compiling raw material for her book Valenge Women: the social and economic life of the Valenge women of Portugese East Africa (Oxford University Press, 1933).
George Percival Bargery was born in Exeter on 1 October 1876. He was educated at Hele School, Exeter, Islington College and the University of London. He was ordained as a chaplain to the Church Missionary Society in 1899. In 1900 he went to Northern Nigeria, where he served as a missionary until 1910. In that year he was invalided home as unfit for further service in the tropics, but within two years he had been accepted for a post in the Colonial Education Service and was back again in Northern Nigeria, where he remained until 1930. It was for his work during this period that he is best known. After founding the first government school among the Tiv people on the Benue, he turned his attention to the Hausa language and was appointed Government Examiner in it. In 1921 he was seconded by the Governor, Sir Hugh Clifford, to compile a dictionary of that language. His Hausa-English Dictionary was published in 1934 and included the first tonal analysis of the Hausa language. For his work he received a Doctorate in Literature from University of London in 1937.
While he was still working in London on the final stages of the dictionary, Bargery was appointed as Lecturer in Hausa to the School of Oriental Studies. He was made Senior Lecturer in 1935, and Reader in 1937. He did not retire from this post until 1947. After his retirement from the School he continued similar teaching under the Colonial Office at both Oxford and Cambridge until 1953. In 1953, at the age of 77, he returned to Kano at the invitation of the British and Foreign Bible Society, to superintend work on a new Hausa translation of the New Testament. He was awarded the OBE when he returned to England in 1957. He outlived both his wives: Eliza Minnie, whom he married in 1906 and who died in 1932, and Minnie Jane, whom he married eight years later, and who died in 1952. He had one son by his first marriage. Towards the end of his life he was plagued by ill health and became almost totally blind. He died on 2 August 1966.
David Lloyd Francis was born in England but emigrated to New Zealand with his family in about 1920. He and his wife worked with the Melanesian Mission for sixteen years in the New Hebrides, the Solomon Islands and Santa Cruz Islands, including six months on the Island of New Britain in the Mandated Territory of New Guinea. He was ordained in May 1937. During the Second World War he worked as a medical missionary/chaplain for the Allied armed forces in a military camp in the Solomon Islands. After the War, Francis toured New Zealand with an exhibition of 'Melanesian Curios', which he brought to Britain in 1947. He settled again in Britain, doing occasional work for the BBC. He died in the early 1990s.
Teddy Wedlock worked for the Admiralty. From 1924-1928 he and his wife Dora were stationed at Wei-hai-wei Naval Dockyard, North China, where he served as Second Officer to Mr Lofts, the Store Officer to the Naval Dockyard. From 1929-1931, the Wedlocks were based at the Royal Naval Dockyard at Trincomalee in Ceylon. From 1931-1932, they were stationed at HM Naval Dockyard, Hong Kong. Whilst there, they lived in a suite of rooms in the Knutsford Hotel in Kowloon. Dora Wedlock had a strong interest in the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Bantu refers to an African ethnic and linguistic group, numbering c120 million and inhabiting much of Africa south of the river Congo. There are almost a hundred Bantu languages, which include, for example, Swahili and Zulu. Most are tonal. The Bantu group of languages forms a subdivision of the Benue-Niger division of the Niger-Congo branch of the Niger-Kordofanian language family. African languages have been subject to scholarly interest particularly in the 20th century.
Born, 1865; lived at Herston, Swanage, Dorset; attended a preparatory institute, 1890; sent to work as Lay Agent for the Uganda Mission of the Church Missionary Society, 1891; his connection with the Church Missionary Society ended when he returned to England (possibly due to ill health), 1892.
The Philippines comprise thousands of islands and rocks, of which c400 are permanently inhabited. Luzon is among the largest islands, and the capital Manila is located there. The majority of the inhabitants, known as Filipinos, belong to the Malay group. Other groups include the Negritos and the Dumagats. Over 80 per cent of the population is Roman Catholic. Some 70 native languages are spoken. Ferdinand E Marcos was elected President in 1965, and he remained in office until he fled the country in 1986.
Born, 1885; educated at Fordyce Academy; MA, Aberdeen University, 1906; BD, Edinburgh University, 1909; ordained in the Church of Scotland; missionary for the Church of Scotland Mission at Ichang, China, 1909-1915; served in the Royal Field Artillery, firstly as a gunner and later as commissioned officer, 1916-1919; awarded the Military Cross; returned to serve at Ichang, 1920; awarded the CBE as a result of assistance given to Captain Lalor of the Butterfield and Swire ship Siangtan, managing to negotiate Lalor's release after he was captured by pirates (1927), 1928; the events were widely reported; honorary Doctor of Divinity, Aberdeen University, 1934; held by the Japanese at Shanghai, 1940; involved in relief work among destitute Britons in Shanghai, 1941-1942; interned in Lunghwa Civilian Assembly Centre, near Shanghai, 1943-1945; returned to work at Ichang, 1945-1948; minister of the parish of Botriphnie, Banffshire, 1948-1955; died, 1973.
Born, 1921; travelled to Burma to work for the teak merchants McGregor & Co in Toungoo, 1946; returned to Britain, 1948; ordained deacon, 1952; ordained priest, 1953; Canon at Salisbury Cathedral, 1977.
Jeremy Lawrance was a District Commissioner in Karamoja, Uganda, for two years and in Teso for five years during the 1950s. Publications: The Iteso: fifty years of change in a Nilo-Hamitic tribe of Uganda (1957); with J H Hilder, An introduction to the Ateso language (1957); with J H Hilder, An English-Ateso and Ateso-English vocabulary (1958).
David Gamble was employed by the Colonial Office during the late 1940s and 1950s, and his published works include extensive monographs on the Fula, Wolof and Mandinka languages of the Gambia. He has also written extensively on Fula custom and the history of the Gambia, and worked at the Department of Anthropology, San Francisco State University, during the 1970s and 1980s. The Fula language is spoken in an area from the Gambia to Guinea Bissau, West Africa. Publications: Contributions to a socio-economic survey of the Gambia (Colonial Office Research Department, 1949); Economic Conditions in Two Mandinka Villages (Colonial Office Research Department, 1953); Mandinka Reading Book (1956); The Wolof of Senegambia ... with notes on the Lebu and the Serer (1957); Bibliography of the Gambia (1967); with Louise Sperling, A general bibliography of the Gambia [1979]; The Gambia (c1988); edited, with P E H Hair, Richard Jobson's The discovery of River Gambra (1999).
The Chinese Maritime Customs (formerly the Imperial Maritime Customs) collected customs duties from foreign ships and administered port facilities on behalf of the Chinese Government. It was managed mainly by foreigners, largely British. The appointment of a new Inspector-General in 1928 caused controversy between the Chinese and British governments, having implications for Western business interests in China and relations between the two countries.
Robert Morrison: born near Morpeth, Northumberland, England, 1782; grew up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne; following a rudimentary education, apprenticed to his father as a last and boot-tree maker; joined the Presbyterian church, 1798; decided to prepare for missionary work; studied at Hoxton Academy (later Highbury College), London, 1803; studied at the Missionary Academy, Gosport, Hampshire, 1804; appointed by the London Missionary Society (LMS) and studied medicine, astronomy and Chinese in London, 1805; ordained and sailed via Philadelphia and New York to Canton, 1807; pioneering Protestant missionary to China, though he saw few conversions himself; married Mary Morton (1791-1821), daughter of an East India Company surgeon, in Macau, 1809; became translator to the East India Company's factory in Canton, securing a legal basis for residence and a means of supporting himself, 1809; completed the translation of the New Testament into Chinese, 1813; it was printed, 1814; viewed with hostility by Chinese officials; baptised the first Protestant Chinese Christian, 1814; served as translator on Lord Amherst's abortive embassy to Peking (Beijing), 1816-1817; returned to Canton, 1817; on the completion of his Anglo-Chinese dictionary, received the degree of Doctor of Divinity, University of Glasgow, 1817; with William Milne (1785-1822) founded the Anglo-Chinese College, Malacca, for training missionaries in the Far East, 1818; with Milne, completed the translation of the Bible, 1819; visited Malacca, 1823; travelled to England, 1823-1824; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1824; helped to established the short-lived Language Institution in London; ordained the first Chinese native pastor, 1825; married Eliza Armstrong (1795-1874), 1825; left England and returned to Canton, 1826; died at Canton, 1834. Publications include: Dictionary of the Chinese Language (1815-1823); Grammar of the Chinese Language (1815); Chinese Bible and numerous Chinese tracts, translations, and works on philology. His son from his first marriage, John Robert Morrison (1814-1843), succeeded his father at the East India Company and became secretary to the Hong Kong government.
The medical missionary Frederick Charles Roberts (1862-1894) was commemorated in the London Missionary Society's Roberts Memorial Hospital, which opened in in T'sangchou (Tsangchow or Changzhou), about 90 miles south of Tientsin (Tianjin) in northern China, in 1903. Its establishment was funded by gifts from the Roberts family and by support from the local community. Its staff included Dr Arthur Davies Peill (1874-1906), who worked for the London Missionary Society as medical missionary to north China from 1896, and his brother Dr Sidney George Peill (1878-1960), medical missionary at Tsangchow from 1907.
Roger Turpie was Captain of the London Missionary Society (LMS) ship the John Williams.
Several mission ships served LMS mission stations in the South Seas, itinerating among the islands. A succession of these ships was named John Williams (after the famous missionary), the first of them launched in 1844, and the fourth, a steamship, in 1893. The John Williams became a feature of the LMS's educational service, and an annual New Year offering for the ship became an important part of the Society's income, including gifts from children.
Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society missionary to the Gold Coast, west Africa, 1840-1845; worked among indigenous people in Canada in the Hudson Bay district from 1847.
Negri (or Negeri) Sembilan (meaning 'nine states'), now a state within Malaysia, is located on the Strait of Malacca. Its separate political existence began when it broke away from the sultanate of Riau and Johor in 1777 to form a loose confederation, although each state retained a high degree of independence. In the colonial period the British created a closer federation (1895). Negeri Sembilan became one of the Federated Malay States (1896) and was subsequently part of the Federation of Malaya (1948).
Born at Sherborne, 1845; studied at Cheshunt College (Cambridge); appointed London Missionary Society (LMS) missionary to Peking, was ordained, and sailed for Peking, 1871; married Edith Prankard (d 1903), 1872; engaged in pastoral and evangelistic work in Peking and its out-stations; in charge of the native church and out-stations, 1873-1876; settled in the West City; left Peking and joined the mission station at Chi Chow (Siaochang), 1897; with his family and other missionaries, forced to leave due to the Boxer Uprising, 1900; fled to the coast near Chefoo, took a steamer to Japan, and returned to England via Canada; returned to Peking, 1902; joined the staff of the Union Theological College, Peking, 1905; resigned and was transferred to Sioachang, 1915; served for many years as Secretary of the LMS North China District Committee; returned to England, 1921; resigned his position as a missionary, 1922; subsequently went back to live in China, but returned to England, 1933; died at Marlborough, Wiltshire, 1937. Publications: contributed several articles on the Chinese version of the Scriptures to Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible. His daughter, Gladys Evans Meech (1888-1935), was also a missionary to China, 1925-1935.
The Advisory Committee on Oriental Materials (ACOOM) was set up in 1980 as an advisory committee of the Standing Conference on National and University Libraries (SCONUL). The organisation acted as a discussion group for matters concerning libraries holding collections of Oriental material, largely university libraries (particularly Durham, Exeter, Cambridge, Hull, Oxford, and the School of Oriental and African Studies) and national libraries such as the various departments of the British Library relating to Oriental materials. ACOOM was formerly known as the SCONUL Group of Orientalist Libraries and in 1991 became the National Council on Orientalist Library Resources.
Born in India, 1898; educated at Rossall School; joined the Machine Gun Corps, 1917; served in France, Germany and southern Russia, 1917-1920; joined the Colonial Administrative Service, 1920; Administrative Officer, Northern Nigeria, 1920-1933; Acting Principal Assistant Secretary, Nigerian Secretariat, 1934-1936; Assistant Resident Commissioner and Government Secretary, Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1936; Resident Commissioner, Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1937-1942; Resident Commissioner, Basutoland, 1942-1946; Knight,1946; Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Sarawak, 1946-1949; Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Gold Coast, 1949-1957; oversaw the independence of Ghana as first Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief, 1957; retired, 1957; Honorary DCL, Durham, 1958; Chairman of the Royal African Society, 1959; Chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind, 1959; Chairman of the National Council for the Supply of Teachers Overseas, 1960; member of the Monckton Commission on central Africa, 1960; died, 1962.
William Walmsley: born, 1868; engineer; lived in Salford, Manchester; his firm Bousteads asked him to accompany a consignment of machinery to Zanzibar to instal in their coconut processing works, 1891; travelled from Gravesend to Zanzibar, 1891; contracted a fever and entered the French Hospital, where he died, 1891.
Born in Walsall (Staffordshire), 1858; studied at Cheshunt College (Cambridge), 1878-1883; appointed London Missionary Society (LMS) missionary to New Guinea; ordained, married Mary Todhunter (d 1952), and sailed to New Guinea, 1883; settled at Murray Island, Torres Straits; withdrew from the New Guinea mission owing to ill health, 1886; returned to England, 1887; pastor at the Countess of Huntingdon's Crozens Chapel, Hereford, 1889-1892; became Assistant District Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) for the North Metropolitan Area, 1892; Assistant to the Honorary Home Secretary, BFBS, 1894; retired and settled at Shanklin (Isle of Wight), 1915; died in Croydon (Surrey), 1937. Publication: with Samuel McFarlane, published a translation of the Gospels of Mark and John into the Murray Island (Mer) language, Euangelia Mareko ... (Sydney, 1885), with appendix including the catechism and forms for the marriage and burial services.
Following the advances of the British South Africa Company (incorporated in 1889), northern Rhodesia (later Zambia) became a territory of the British Crown in 1894. Missionary work in northern Rhodesia, a remote and thinly settled region, was pioneered in the last decades of the 19th century.
The donor of these manuscripts, the Rev Canon James Smith Robertson (b 1917), served the UMCA (Universities Mission to Central Africa) in northern Rhodesia, 1945-1950, and worked in Mapanza, 1950-1955, and Lusaka, 1955-1965.
Richard Henry Sabin: born at New Barnet (Hertfordshire), 1904; studied theology at Cheshunt College, Cambridge; BA (Cantab); appointed London Missionary Society (LMS) missionary to Mbereshi, Northern Rhodesia (Zambia); ordained at New Barnet Congregational Church, 1932; married Lucy Mary Hawkins (d 1933), 1932; sailed to Africa, 1932; his service included work at the Bible School for the training of African ministers; married, secondly, Mary Gladstone Hayward (d 1989), 1938; two children, Pauline Mary (b 1939) and Christopher Hubert Henry (b 1940); resigned his connection with the LMS and accepted the pastorate of Claremont Congregational Church, Cape Town, 1941; returned to England, 1944; subsequently Africa Secretary to the United Society for Christian Literature, and minister of churches in Ilkley (Yorkshire), Great Yarmouth (Norfolk), and Wolverhampton (Staffordshire); died in Middesex Hospital, 1969. Richard Sabin's aunt, Margaret Sabin (1887-1978), also served the London Missionary Society at Mbereshi.
Although apartheid was strengthened in the period from 1948, in the preceding period black (African) and 'coloured' (other non-white) inhabitants of the Union of South Africa (established in 1910) were already disadvantaged legally and economically in comparison with white inhabitants. Initiatives to oppose their inferior treatment included the activities of the politican and writer Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje (1876-1932).
The lawyer and politician Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford (1866-1930) was a member of the Legislative Council of the Gold Coast from 1916 and was prominent in maintaining pressure for self-government, through the National Congress of British West Africa. Publications include: Gold Coast Native Institutions: with thoughts upon a healthy imperial policy for the Gold Coast and Ashanti (1903); Ethiopia Unbound: studies in race emancipation (1911); Gold Coast Land Tenure and the Forest Bill: a review of the situation (1911); The Truth about the West African Land Question (1913); William Waddy Harris, the West African reformer: the man and his message (1915). See also West African Leadership ... Public speeches delivered by the Honourable J E Casely Hayford, etc, ed Magnus J Sampson [1951].
The remit of the Commission of Enquiry into the Facilities for Oriental, Slavonic, East European and African Studies (Scarborough Commission) was to research facilities available in Britain and elsewhere for Oriental, East European and African studies, surveying existing facilities using questionnaires, and discussing potential needs with individuals, companies, government departments, trade associations and other organisations, including universities in South Africa and North America. Its Chairman was the Earl of Scarborough and the Secretary was Mr R T D Lechard. Its members included Dr B Ifor Evans. The Commission was appointed on 14 December 1944, and reported in 1945.
Born, 1899; educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge (MA); BSc, London; entered the Indian Civil Service, 1922; retired, 1937; member of the Indian Legislative Assembly, 1937; Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire, 1943; Leader, European Group, Indian Central Legislature, 1946; Knight, 1947; Central Organiser, National War Front, India, and Publicity Adviser to the Government of India; KBE, 1963; Honorary Fellow, School of Oriental and African Studies, 1971; President, India, Pakistan and Burma Association; died, 1992. Publications: The British in India (1947); The British Impact on India (1952); Modern India (1957); The Changing Face of Communism (1961); The Road to Freedom (1964); History of the Indian Tea Industry (1967); Empire into Commonwealth (1969); To Guard My People: the history of the Indian Police (1971); A Licence to Trade: the History of English Chartered Companies (1975); A History of the Inchcape Group (1977); A History of the Joint Steamer Companies (1979); Vignettes of India (1986).
James Sibree was born in Hull on 14 April 1836. In his early life, Sibree served as an engineer's pupil and worked for the Hull Board of Health (1859-1863). In 1863 he sailed to Madagascar having been appointed Architect of the Memorial Churches, Tananarive, for the London Missionary Society (LMS). He worked on the churches at Ambatonakanga, Ambohipotsy, Andohalo and Manjakaray. He returned to England in 1867 to study at Spring Hill College, Moseley, near Birmingham. During his time at Spring Hill he also carried out deputation work for the London Missionary Society. James Sibree was ordained in 1870. He was also married in February of that year to Deborah Richardson. Together with his wife, he returned Madagascar as a missionary and was stationed at Ambohimanga. He worked on a revision of the Malagasy Bible, took part in a deputation and in 1876 went to work at the Theological Institution in Tananarive. In September 1877 the Sibrees returned to England, owing to problems with the local government. From 1877 to 1879, he carried out deputation work in England. In November 1879 he was appointed as Principal of the London Missionary Society High School at Vizagapatam, South India. However, due to illness the Sibrees returned to England in June 1880. From 1880 to 1883 he once more carried out deputation work in England. In 1883, he and his wife were re-appointed to Madagascar, where Sibree became Principal of the LMS College at Tananarive. The Sibrees left Madagascar, arriving back in England in November 1916. Deborah Sibree became ill, and a great deal of James Sibree's time was devoted to nursing her. She died on 21 July 1920. In the last years of his life, James Sibree continued to carry out much of the deputation work for the LMS and the Bible Society. In 1923, James Sibree completed the Register of Missionaries and Deputations of the LMS.
Harold Edgar Wareham was born on 8 January 1872 at Guildford, son of the Rev. Edward Allport Wareham who was a missionary to Southern India with the London Missionary Society. He studied theology at Edinburgh Congregational Hall, and medicine and surgery at Edinburgh University. He was ordained in April 1902, and was appointed to the London Missionary Society Central African Mission as a medical missionary. He married Rebecca Purves Stewart (b 1877) on 19 April 1902. Dr and Mrs Wareham left Britain on 30 April 1902 and arrived in Kawimbe on 3 August. They were stationed at Kambole until October 1903, when they were transferred to Kawimbe. In 1921, Dr Wareham was appointed temporarily to Mpolokoso. He left in May 1922 to open a new mission station at Kafulwe in Lake Mweru district. The Warehams carried out medical, educational and some evangelical activities. In 1925 they were transferred to Mbereshi. Their work as missionaries in Northern Rhodesia ended in 1931, when Dr Wareham retired on grounds of ill health. They returned to Britain on 21 September 1931. Harold Edgar Wareham died in Edinburgh on 4 February 1955. Mrs Wareham died on 15 March in the same year.
Margaret Temple worked as a governess for the Ethiopian royal family at Fairfield, Bath, from 1939 to 1943. Haile Selassie (1892-1975) became Emperor of Ethiopia in 1930 and fought against the Italian invasion in 1935, but fled to British protection in 1936. In 1940, following Italy's entry into World War Two, he returned to Africa with British aid, re-entering Ethiopia and regaining his throne in 1941.
The Second Boer War commenced in 1899 when the Transvaal and the Orange Free State declared war on Britain. Initial victories by Boer forces included the capture of Mafeking. Kimberley and Ladysmith were besieged. British reinforcements arrived in 1900 and Kimberley and Ladysmith were relieved, to be followed by Mafeking. The Boer states were annexed by the British and, although the Boers continued a guerrilla campaign, hostilities ended in 1902 with the Treaty of Vereeniging.
Cecil John Rhodes, born in 1853, first went to South Africa in 1870. He was a prominent figure in the history of South Africa as a businessman (he had interests in the Kimberley diamond fields and was founder of the De Beers mining company) and imperial politician (prime minister of Cape Colony, 1890-1896). During the Second Boer War he commanded troops at Kimberley and was besieged there. He died in South Africa in 1902 and was buried in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).
The Boxer Uprising (1898-1900) was a movement against Western influence in China. A secret anti-foreign society, the Boxers (Ch'uan), undertook attacks on foreigners from 1899. In 1900 the Boxers occupied Peking (Beijing). The siege was lifted later that year by an international force which ended the Uprising.
Born in Aberdeen, 1848; moved with her family to Dundee; began work in the linen mills aged 11, c1859; came under the influence of a local minister and became leader of a Christian youth club; felt a call to serve in Calabar, Nigeria; the United Presbyterian Church Mission Committee eventually agreed to send her to Calabar as a mission teacher, 1876; went to work alone among the Okoyong, 1888; lived in traditional housing with outcast women and twins she had rescued, dressing simply; pioneered an alternative way of engaging in mission; as British colonial authority proceeded inland she worked among the people affected, 1903; as a result, new stations were created; continued to live as head of a household of African women and children until her death at Use, 1915.
The School of Oriental Studies (later the School of Oriental and African Studies) was founded as part of the University of London to address inadequacy of teaching in Asian languages in London, and to cater for the study of Asian cultures. It opened in 1917. Its library received substantial collections of books transferred from other London institutions.
The philologist Sir George Abraham Grierson (1851-1941) joined the Indian Civil Service in 1873 and was in charge of the Linguistic Survey of India from 1898. He was a Fellow of the British Academy and member of several Asiatic, Oriental and linguistic societies. His numerous publications on the languages of India included The Linguistic Survey of India.
The first mission of the London Missionary Society to Siberia was begun in 1818. Missionaries itinerated and evangelised among the nomadic inhabitants. Edward Stallybrass (c1793-1884) and William Swan (1791-1866) served there until the mission was suppressed by the Russian government in 1840, and the missionaries returned to Britain in 1841.
Edith M Lucas was born into a wealth Jewish family, but converted to Christianity and served as a missionary with the China Inland Mission, working in Chinkiang in KiangSu province. After her marriage she was Edith Cox.
Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy until 1933; joined the Marine Department of the Chinese Maritime Customs, 1934; initially stationed at Shanghai, visiting different Chinese ports while supplying stores to lighthouses along the coast; transferred to the Yangtze River staff, where he was responsible for keeping the river clear for shipping, 1935; transferred to Hankow, 1936; left the Chinese Maritime Customs, 1937; rejoined the navy; Commander of the gunboat HMS LADYBIRD, which bombarded the port of Bardia (Libya), 1941.
In the colonial period Cameroon was divided between French and British influence. The French Cameroons achieved independence in 1960. Soon afterwards the British territory was divided, the northern zone being united with Nigeria and the southern incorporated with Cameroon. Agriculture is important to the economy, with bananas among the significant exports.
Dr Humphrey Fisher was Reader in the History of Africa at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Publications include: Ahmadiyyah: a study in contemporary Islam on the West African coast (1963); with Allan George Barnard Fisher, Slavery and Muslim society in Africa: the institution in Saharan and Sudanic Africa, and the trans-Saharan trade (1970); edited Benjamin Anderson's Narrative of a journey to Musardu, the capital of the Western Mandingoes ... with Narrative of the expedition despatched to Musahdu by the Liberian government ... in 1874 ... (1971); joint translator of Gustav Nachtigal's Sahara and Sudan [1971-]; joint editor of Rural and urban Islam in West Africa (Asian and African studies, vol xx no 1, 1986).
William Lockhart was born on 3 October 1811 in Liverpool. He trained at the Meath Hospital, Dublin, and Guy's Hospital, London. Joining the London Missionary Society, he was appointed medical missionary to Canton and sailed on 31 July 1838. In 1839 he left Canton to set up a hospital in Macao. Following an arrangement with American missionaries he left Macao for Chusan and reached Tinghae on 13 September 1840. The following year he returned to Macao and married Catherine Parkes. In 1842 he went to Hong Kong then to Chusan and in 1843 arrived at Shanghai and opened a hospital along with Dr. Medhurst. Following a trip home to England, Lockhart visited Peking and worked there from 1861 to 1864. He returned to England permanently in 1864 and retired in 1867. He was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of the London Missionary Society from 1869 to 1870. In 1892 he presented his library to the London Missionary Society. He died on 29 April 1896.
Alan P Hughes is the great-great-grandson of Lockhart.
Born in Suffolk, 1901; known as Wouse; emigrated to Kenya, 1920; became an education officer among the Masai; learned the language and became an expert on Masai culture; transferred to the Administrative Service; serving as District Commissioner of Turkana District when Jomo Kenyatta (later Prime Minister, 1963, and President, 1964, of Kenya) and other convicts of the Mau Mau organisation (which aimed in the 1950s to force the expulsion of white settlers) were detained there; became friends with Kenyatta, who influenced his views on African politics; retired at the time of Kenyan independence (1963) and became a Kenyan citizen, helping to demarcate the national boundaries and travelling long distances through wild terrain; continued to work as a magistrate into old age; awarded Kenya's highest decoration, Grand Warrior of Kenya; died, 1989. For further information see Elizabeth Watkins's biography, Jomo's Jailor: Grand Warrior of Kenya (Britwell Books, Watlington, 1996; first published in France, 1993).
Benjamin Pratt was born on 9 August 1853. After working as a designer-draughtsman with the family firm, he studied for the ministry at Richmond College and was ordained in 1880. He was sent by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society to Hyderabad, India, where he learned Telugu. In 1883 he established a station at Karim Nagar. The following year he married Mary Newsholme. She died in 1885, and in 1887 he married Edith Amelia Ball, with whom he had five children. In 1896 he became District Superintendent and moved to Secunderabad. In 1907 he returned to England after suffering a stroke. In 1920 he moved to Alberta, Canada. He died on 7 June 1931.
George E Cormack was born in 1886. He spent the period 1913-1917 in Manchuria as a business representative, returning to Britain escorting a gang of Chinese labourers destined for the Chinese Labour Corps. He served with the British Expeditionary Force in North Russia between 1918-1919 and this was followed by a brief sojourn in South Russia, 1919-1920. He then worked in Estonia and Latvia as a shipping agent, 1924-1940. He returned to northern Russia from 1941-1942 as a Ministry of War Transport representative with the Murmansk convoys. He died in 1959.
Walter Barr Birmingham was Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Ghana at Legon-Achimota from 1952-1960. In 1954 he conducted possibly the first public opinion survey in tropical Africa prior to the Gold Coast General Election. In 1955 he served on the Royal Commission of Enquiry into the mining industry and advised on the Five-Year Development Plan of 1963. From 1972-1975 he was Professor of Economics at the University of Cape Coast. His main publications were Introduction to Economics (1955) and in Social and Economic Survey of Ghana edited by Omaboe and Neustadt.
Henry Herbert Dodwell was born in 1879. He was educated at Thames Grammar School and St. John's College, Oxford. He married Lily May in 1908. He was Professor of History and Culture of the British Dominions in Asia at the School of Oriental and African Studies from 1922-1946. He edited two volumes of The Cambridge History of India (Cambridge University Press, 1929 and 1932) and The Founder of Modern Egypt: a study of Muhamad 'Ali (1931). He died on 13 June 1946.
Born in London, 1801; son of a leather merchant; studied at St John's College, Cambridge; BA, 1824; MA, 1832; ordained in the Anglican church; the family emigrated to America, 1833; appointed Rector of St Peter's, New York, and Librarian of the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States; was dismissed after preaching a Thanksgiving sermon advocating emancipation of slaves, 1835; returned to London and became curate of Tooting (Surrey); given responsibility for the guardianship of two princes from the Gold Coast, (John) Ossoo Ansah (c1822-1884), son of the reigning king of Ashanti, and his cousin (William) Quanti Massah (Nkwantamisa) (d 1859), 1840; the princes had been sent as hostages under a peace treaty of 1831 between the Ashantis and the British government and it was felt that they would benefit from a trip to England, including her manufacturing towns; Pyne was subsequently perpetual curate of St Paul, Hook, near Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, 1843-1873; married Elizabeth (d 1911), daughter of Thomas Waters, 1860; believed in the power of hypnosis, advocated teetotalism, and opposed capital punishment; died, 1873. Publications included: translation of Pagan Rome (1839); Vital Magnetism: a remedy (1844); Judaea libera; or, the Eligibility of the Jews ... to Parliaments (1850); The Law of Kindness (1850); The Sabbath: its origin and perpetuity vindicated, from the Old and New Testaments [1850?]; A Glance at the Heavens, or, Sketch of Modern Astronomy (1852); A Memoir of the Rev R F Walker [1855]; translation of César Henri Abraham Malan's Traits of Romanism in Switzerland [1859?]. For further information see Maboth Moseley, 'The Ashanti Hostages in Britain', West Africa, 1 Nov 1952, p 1013.
The international conference 'Cocoa Production and Economic Development in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries' was organised by the School of Oriental and African Studies and the London School of Economics, and held in London on 15-17 September 1993. Some of the papers given at the conference were later published in: W G Clarence-Smith (ed.), Cocoa Pioneer Fronts since 1800: The Role of Smallholders, Planters and Merchants (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996).
Cecil Edward Seager was born on 1 April 1908, in Leicester. He was educated at Leeds Modern School (Secondary) between 1913 and 1926. On leaving school, he was accepted as a missionary student at the United Independent College, Bradford. He took an arts course at Edinburgh University, graduating with an MA in October 1931. He went on to read for a theology course at the United Independent College, which he completed in June 1933. In the same year he was appointed as a missionary with the London Missionary Society. He was posted to Inyati, Southern Rhodesia, where he became Principal of the Institution (school), with additional charge of the Inyati District. From 1937, he and his wife were stationed at Tjimali and Dombodema, Matabeleland. In 1941, he resigned from the London Missionary Society and took up alternative ministerial work in southern Africa.