Communicants, Kikuyu, Kenya, August 1926

Communicants, Sunday 15th August 1926. [pictured left to right] Rev Mr Stevenson, Rev Dr Arthur." Group portrait of people receiving communion from Rev John William Arthur, the medical missionary who was appointed to Kikuyu in 1915. He campaigned for educational rights for Africans, against female circumcision and he established the Kikuyu Mission volunteer carrier corps during the First World War. The Kikuyu Mission had been founded on a temporary site by the Imperial British East Africa Company in 1891, before moving to Kikuyu territory in 1898, under the Rev. Thomas Watson. Located on the ‘lower shamba’, the site stands 12 miles from Nairobi, at a distance of approximately 342 miles away from the coast. The Church of Scotland assumed control of the Mission in 1901.The mission church was built as a memorial to Dr Ruffelle Scott who originally began the building of a mission church as a memorial to the Reverend Thomas Watson, who died in 1900. In April of the same year, the first day-school was opened for children. ❧ "A Series of Photos illustrating Life and Work at Kikuyu. August 1926. Rev W.B. Stevenson.