Record

LevelSub-fonds
Finding Number (Click this to view full catalogue structure)CMS/E
TitleEducational Auxiliary
Extent8 boxes
Datec 1898-1917
DescriptionCorrespondence received 1908-1914 and records of the Educational Committee and two of its sub-committees 1901-1917 predominantly dating from after the appointment of the first Educational Secretary in 1909.

Although only a small sequence, relating to a few years in the Society's long history of educational mission work, the records are a useful source for research into this key branch of CMS activity, particularly for references to CMS schools, colleges and training institutions overseas and the names of workers who went out to educational institutions under the Short Service Scheme; there are also some references to non CMS educational developments overseas.
ArrangementArranged in two series: /A Administration (and thereunder /AC correspondence) and /C Committee work.
Access ConditionsThe CMS archives are subject to a 40 year closure period and material is usually released at the end of each decade (the latest records to be released are 1950-1959 which were made available at the beginning of 2000). In accordance with Data Protection regulations and conditions set by CMS, records which include personal data are closed for the lifetime of the individual where known, or 105 years.
Access StatusOpen
Physical DescriptionWhen quoting the file reference it is essential to have the department letter as well as the rest, for example, CMS/E/AC 1 rather than AC 1, as the sub-references occur in the papers of nearly all the various departments at Headquarters.
Administrative HistoryFrom the beginning CMS stressed the importance in missionary work of education and by the start of the 20th century was working in over 2000 schools and seminaries (source: CMS Proceedings 1900). In 1900, a scheme for an Educational Auxiliary was adopted, the idea being to rouse interest amongst supporters at home for CMS work in schools and colleges abroad and to raise financial support in much the same way as the Medical Missions Auxiliary worked on behalf of CMS medical work.

An Educational Committee was appointed by the General Committee 9 October 1900 with responsibility both for work at home and overseas. In terms of the overseas side of its work, the Committee was accountable, and reported, to the Committee of Correspondence (and thereby to the General Committee) and worked in close co-operation with the three Group Committees. In conducting the home side of its work, the Committee reported to the Funds and Home Organisation Committee (and thereby to the General Committee).

The Committee's primary function was to serve educational missionary work overseas. The CMS was concerned both with evangelistic teaching of non-Christians and the education of Christians (source: draft Regulations on Education CMS/E/C 1/1). By 1911, there were 2,897 mission colleges and CMS schools within its remit; in addition to missionaries working in education, under the Society's Short Service Scheme, university graduates and 'other suitable qualified persons' worked in educational institutions in the mission field for 1.5 to 5 years assisting the staff and learning about 'missionary problems'; the extent of educational mission work was such that missions appointed local educational committees, conferences and boards which reported to the CMS Local Governing Body and helped to keep the Educational Committee in touch with work in the missions. The Educational Committee also advised and made recommendations on matters referred by other CMS committees (particularly the Group Committees and Committee of Correspondence) including staffing issues, college constitutions, plans and estimates for building work, overseas government educational policies, use of the Society's General Fund for educational work and all matters relevant to the Society's education mission work; it had the authority to make grants from the Educational Fund (subject to confirmation by the General Committee) and was also responsible for 'disseminating knowledge of the work and the problems of Christian education in the non-Christian world, and especially in the Society's missions, of evoking prayer thereof, of seeking sufficient recruits for educational posts, and of appealing for the money necessary for "more adequately staffing and equipping the educational work of the Society, to provide for its extension and to relieve the General Fund of the Society of portions of expenditure on education"' (source: 'CMS Gazette' October 1911).

In February 1909, the first Secretary for Educational Missions was appointed to Headquarters Staff. The Secretary's responsibilities, again encompassing work at home and overseas, were to: 'seek to enlist increased sympathy and support of C. M. S. Educational Missions, especially in the Universities and various Colleges in Great Britain and Ireland'; 'study by correspondence and otherwise Educational problems in the field' and 'assist by expert advice or otherwise the Group Committees in dealing with Educational questions; in addition to acting as Secretary of the Educational Committee' (Educational Committee minutes 16 December 1908).

The Committee expanded under Theodore W. R. Lunt's Secretaryship attracting an eminent membership including Bishop Ryle, Dean of Westminster, and the headmasters of Eton and Rugby schools. When Lunt left in 1914, responsibility for the overseas side of the work passed to the Secretary of the Group 2 (West Asia) Committee although by 1919 it appears that all the Group Committees were again working with the Educational Committee on the problems and needs for their particular regions. In 1920 a departmental Secretary for Education was appointed as a member of the Home Department (later Home 'Division'). The Education Department remained part of the Home Division until 1973 when the Society's committee structure was altered.

Secretary to Educational Committee:
1909-1910 Harry George Grey (Honorary post); 1910-1914 Theodore R. W. Lunt; 1914-1916 Edward Harry Mansfield Waller (acting); 1917-1919 Edmund Francis Edward Wigram; 1921 F. Garfield Williams

Secretary to Group 1 (East Asia) Committee:
1895-1913 Baring Baring-Gould; 1913-1921 Frederick Baylis

Secretary to Group 2 (West Asia) Committee:
1897-1913 George Backhouse Durrant; 1913-1915 Edward Harry Mansfield Waller; 1915-1929 Edmund Francis Edward Wigram

Secretary to Group 3 (Africa) Committee:
1893-1912 Frederick Baylis; 1912-1925 George Thomas Manley

Secretary to the General Committee:
1895-1910 Henry Elliott Fox; 1910-1922 Cyril Charles Bowman Bardsley

Sources: Rosemary Keen, 'Catalogue of the papers of the Educational Auxiliary'; Eugene Stock's 'History of the Church Missionary Society', volume IV; 'CMS Gazette' 2 October 1911 pp 291-292.
Archival NoteCatalogued by Rosemary Keen; updated by I. Frlan 2010.
Related MaterialThere is a brief explanation of the functions of the Educational Committee by T. R. W. L[unt] in the 'CMS Gazette' 1911 p 291 and an account of the Educational Auxiliary in Eugene Stock's 'History of the Church Missionary Society', volume IV, pp 526-528. The 'Centenary Volume of the Church Missionary Society' London: CMS 1902 lists CMS institutions including educational establishments. Other published histories including Gordon Hewitt's 'The Problems of Success: a history of the Church Missionary Society, 1910-1942' are also good sources for information about educational work in the different mission areas. Correspondence, minutes, reports and personal accounts of educational work, including material dating from before and after the establishment of the Educational Auxiliary, can be found in the records of the General Secretary's Department (see particularly CMS/G/C; CMS/G/E; CMS/G/AD; CMS/G/AC; CMS/G/AZ; CMS/G/GZ and CMS/G/Y), the Foreign (later Overseas Divison (CMS/B), the Home Division (CMS/H) and the papers of overseas mission secretaries which form part of the records of the overseas churches (CMS/Q). For example, the General Secretary's Department Committee records include a Precis Book incorporating summaries of correspondence and agenda papers prepared for meetings of the Educational Committee prior to the appointment of the Educational Secretary 1901-1909 (CMS/G/C 10) and the post 1908 indexes to the principal minute books can be searched for references to 'educational work', the 'Short Service Scheme' and the names of educational institutions (CMS/G/C 1A/16); there are records of educational work in the Group Secretaries' personal and confidential papers (CMS/G1/X; CMS/G2/X; CMS/G3/X); the incoming papers in the overseas (missions) series and sequences of Annual Letters include letters from missionaries involved in education work and reports of educational institutions; the Home Division sequences incorporate records of the Educational Secretary and printed material relating to educational work including CMS Education Bulletin numbers 1-6; the CMS periodicals and annual reports (including the typescript Historical Record) are a rich and accessible source for articles, reports and statistics on the Society's different branches of work including educational missions (ask Cadbury Research Library staff for details). The records of the Finance Department (CMS/F) include legal and property papers and correspondence relating to schools.

Cadbury Research Library also holds other archives with material relating to educational mission work, including records of the Female Education Society (FES) and Church of England Zenana Missionary Society (CEZ); papers of Caroline Cuffley Giberne, CMS missionary teacher, South India (DA18) and Dorothea Jane Stephen, educational missionary South India (DA53). Within the CMS Unofficial Papers (CMS/ACC) there are journals, photographs and other records of missionaries involved in education work for the CMS including (examples only) the papers of Mary T. Myers CMS/ACC6; Nancy Corby CMS/ACC22; Rev John Tucker CMS/ACC91; Katherine Tristram ACC104; Archdeacon Corrie of Calcutta CMS/ACC112; Mabel C. Warburton CMS/ACC123; Harold Beken Thomas CMS/ACC374; Handley Douglas Hooper CMS/ACC523; Dorothea Sibella Batley CMS/ACC572; Pamela Wilding CMS/ACC650, Rev Ronald Walpole Gray and Olive Gray CMS/ACC678 and Henry Dallimore CMS/ACC716.