Harold Brelsford Lewin
| Revd Harold Brelsford Lewin | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1873 |
| Died | 1972 (aged 98–99) |
| Education | Boston Grammar School |
| Spouse | Isabella Fergusson |
| Relatives | A brother |
Reverend Harold Brelsford Lewin (1873-1972) of Boston, Lincolnshire was educated at Boston Grammar School. He was accepted as a Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionary in 1894 and served in Uganda until 1930. He was stationed at Kikoma and then at Mbarara. He retired from full service in 1930. He was married to Isabella, née Fergusson (d. 1950). A collection of his papers and photographs held by the University of Birmingham includes an account of a voyage across the Victorian Nyanza which he undertook in 1899; and several albums containing photographs he took during his time in Uganda, many with manuscript captions, which include group and individual photographs of people, both of missionaries and the local population, views, buildings and events. There are a few miscellaneous letters, including one to his brother in 1895 and Lewin's own letters of instructions from the CMS; and his writings comprising a manuscript account of the early life of Rev Aloni Muyinda, 1902 and the typescript of an article on caves in the Uganda protectorate. There is also an unascribed history of the church in Luganda.[1]
Missionary work
Extract from Church and Society in Ankole, Uganda: an analysis of the impact of evangelical Anglican Christianity on ethnic and gender relations in Ankole, 1901-1961 (thesis by Alex Mugisha Kagume)[2]
In 1920 Harold Brelsford Lewin, who was the missionary in charge of Ankole Deanery conducted a class of twenty three trainee teachers, who were intended to take charge of the Literacy Schools, and at the same time work as catechists in the churches where the schools were located, or to found churches where there were none. A Luganda word, 'basizi', rendered 'abashizi' in Runyankore, meaning `sowers' was coined as their title. The name was a pointer to what their new role and work would involve. Following the graduation of these teachers more Literary schools were established, and there was soon at least one at each of the out-station churches. "Some thirty sub-standards schools" were reported by Lewin to be in existence by 1924. As widespread as the church stations, these schools were attended by both Bairu and Bahima. Lewin was a hard-working missionary and his efforts in supervising the work of these schools was nationally noted in 1925:
"In the Kingdom of Ankole, the educational headquarters of the Mission is naturally at the capital, Mbarara.... Probably the sub-standard schools in this area are more often visited by the missionary than in most areas in Uganda, because the missionary who happens to have been continuously stationed here for many years, is a man who likes to get out into his district, and makes time to do it, and they are gathered together by him twice a year for a fortnight's intensive instruction at Mbarara"