Photograph album entitled 'Meru memories'

Album compiled by - with some images also probably taken by - Bertha Jones and Grace Ovenden from images dating from 1949 and 1950 in and around Ribe, Maua, etc, [Kenya]. Photographs are captioned and include images of: synods, mission staff, Meru Girls' Guildry, sunday school children, Mwithumwiru...

Full description


Order number: MMS Box 1393
Date(s) of creation: c1950
Level: Item
Format: Archive           
Main author: Jones; Bertha (1905-2001); educational missionary
Other authors: Ovenden; Grace Elizabeth Marguerite (1915-1955); educational missionary

collection SOAS Archive
id MMS.17.02.11.01.03.03
recordtype archive
scb_item_location Archive & Special Collections
item_location Archive & Special Collections
scb_loan_type Reference only
scb_order_with MMS Box 1393
callnumber MMS/17/02/11/01/03/03
callnumber_txt MMS/17/02/11/01/03/03
callnumber-sort MMS/17/02/11/01/03/03
prefix_number 03
title Photograph album entitled 'Meru memories'
scb_date_creation c1950
scb_level Item
level_sort 8/Collection/Sub-Collection/Sub-Sub-Collection/Sub-Sub-Sub-Collection/Series/Sub-Series/Sub-Sub-Series/File/Item
scb_extent 1 volume
author Jones; Bertha (1905-2001); educational missionary
author_facet Jones; Bertha (1905-2001); educational missionary
Ovenden; Grace Elizabeth Marguerite (1915-1955); educational missionary
authorStr Jones; Bertha (1905-2001); educational missionary
author_letter Jones; Bertha (1905-2001); educational missionary
author2 Ovenden; Grace Elizabeth Marguerite (1915-1955); educational missionary
author2Str Ovenden; Grace Elizabeth Marguerite (1915-1955); educational missionary
format Archive
scb_admin_history Bertha Jones was born in Liverpool on 6 August 1905 to a Primitive Methodist family. After teaching training in Liverpool and some teaching in schools there she was accepted by the Women's Work Department of the Methodist Missionary Society and begun training at Kingsmead, Birmingham, in 1937. Upon leaving Kingsmead after a year she went to work at the Kaga Girls' School in Meru, Kenya. During the following 23 years she supervised Methodist village schools in Meru between 1947 and 1948, was involved in the creation of a teacher training college for women and the establishment of the Girls' Intermediate School at Mwithumwiru. In 1960 she returned to England and taught in schools in Devon until her retirement in 1967. In 1970 she returned to Kenya for 5 years when she was asked to be the warden for the Methodist Guest House in Nairobi. Jones died in Exmouth, Devon, on 2 January 2001. Grace Elizabeth Marguerite Ovenden was born in Brighton, Sussex, on 19 April 1915. After teaching in local schools in Brighton and Kent she was accepted by the Women's Auxiliary of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society and spent a year at Kingsmead, Birmingham. Arriving in Kenya in 1940 she begun work at the Meru Girls' School but later was also involved with village schools in Ribe and visiting communities along the Tana River. From 1950 she concentrated on developing teacher training in Meru. Active in the Revival Movement and a witness to attacks by the Mau Mau on Kikuyu Christians she was tragically killed in a road traffic accident on 23 January 1955.
scb_custodial_history Ms R Alison Lewis acquired this item upon the death of A J Hopkins in 1965
scb_acquisition Gift, accepted on behalf of the Methodist Church, from Ms R Alison Lewis, September 2009
description Album compiled by - with some images also probably taken by - Bertha Jones and Grace Ovenden from images dating from 1949 and 1950 in and around Ribe, Maua, etc, [Kenya]. Photographs are captioned and include images of: synods, mission staff, Meru Girls' Guildry, sunday school children, Mwithumwiru Primary Girls' School, local Christians, lanscapes, Worthington Memorial Church, Mulathankari social centre, Hopkins' leaving party.
scb_related_name_code GB/SOASNAF/P1240
GB/SOASNAF/P1239
scb_access_status Open
scb_copyright Copyright holder unknown
scb_use_restrictions For permission to publish, please contact Archives & Special Collections, SOAS Library in the first instance
language English
language_search English
scb_file_number 3
hierarchy_top_id_raw MMS
hierarchy_sequence MMS.0017.0002.0011.0001.0003.0003