| Description | These papers mainly relate to the work of Thomas Westgate of the Canadian CMS, in South America, 1898-1901 and in German East Africa, 1902-1914. They comprise papers relating to his work in Paraguay under the South American Missionary Society; later correspondence while in Africa; diaries, notebooks, miscellaneous financial papers, writings and articles on CMS work in Africa; papers on the missionary work and experiences of certain individuals; newspaper cuttings and printed papers; and autobiographical materials.
There are also the papers, photographs and correspondence collected by his daughter, Maureen Carter while working on her father's biography as well as papers and photographs relating to her own work at Arusha school, Tanzania. |
| Administrative History | Thomas Buchanan Reginald Westgate (1872-1951 List I 1635) was born in Ontario and accepted by the Canadian CMS in 1902, having first been sent to work in Paraguayan Chaco under the South American Missionary Society (1898-1901). In 1902, he was sent to the CMS mission at Mpwapwa in East Africa. In 1913, Dr Westgate was appointed as principal of the CMS training institution in Kongwa and work on a new building which was to be known as the Huron Training College began. The building was almost complete when war broke out and all the missionaries in German East Africa, including Dr Westgate, were interned as enemy aliens. While in internment he continued to work on translating parts of the Old Testament into Cigogo. The missionaries were liberated by Belgian forces in 1916 and the following year Dr Westgate returned to Canada to take up an appointment as field secretary of a new Canadian missionary society. In 1903 he married Henriette Georgina Humphrey Malone (d 1936 in Winnipeg, List II 595) with whom he had a daughter, Maureen.
Reference: Register of missionaries (clerical, lay & female) and native clergy from 1804 to 1904 (Church Missionary Society, 1905), and unpublished additions to this register in the CMS archives
Reference: Gordon Hewitt, The problems of success: a history of the Church Missionary Society, 1910-1942 (in 2 vols) (London: published for the Church Missionary Society by SCM Press, 1971-1977). |
| Custodial History | Deposited with the CMS in July 1982 and transferred to the Special Collections Department in 2005 |