| Administrative History | Henry Cole (1846-1945) first went out to Mpwapwa in East Africa in 1879 as a lay missionary and agriculturalist. After returning to England for training he was ordained priest in 1890 by Bishop Tucker of the Eastern Equatorial Mission and took up a post in Kisokwe two years later. His language work included translations of some of the Madras Christian Vernacular Education Society publications into Swahili and a Kigogo hymn book. He carried on writing after his retirement to England on health grounds in 1905 and in 1924 'Children of the Dark Continent ' was published, a work based on his experiences and reminiscences of his work in Africa.
He married his first wife, H. Millington in 1881 and she became one of the first three missionary wives to live in an Eastern Equatorial mission. She died at Kisokwe in 1883. His second wife, Alice Mary Baxter, who he married in 1886 was the sister of his colleague Dr. E.J. Baxter, a medical missionary in Mpwapwa.
Henry Cole died in 1945 at St Leonards-on-Sea.
References: Register of missionaries (clerical, lay & female) and native clergy from 1804 to 1904 (Church Missionary Society, 1905) and Register of missionaries additional List I 1804-1892 |
| Custodial History | Deposited with the CMS in October 1978 and transferred to the Special Collections Department in July 2003 |