Photograph album of tea party at Meru [Kenya]

Photograph album from Harry & Margaret [Rev & Mrs William Henry Laughton] recording tea party prior to Rev & Mrs Hopkins departure back to England.

William Henry ('Harry') Laughton was born on 28 August 1906 to the Rev & Mrs G W Laughton of the United Methodist Church. After studying at Sheffield University he joined the United Methodist Church and was posted to Kenya as a lay educational missionary. Appointed as Director of Education for the missions in Meru (later all of Kenya) he built Kaaga Boys' School in 1932 and supervised the 'bush' or 'out' schools.

In 1933 he returned to Britain on furlough and spent three months at Livingstone College on a lay missionary course. Whilst on furlough he married Margaret Johnson and the two returned to Kenya working as a husband and wife team mainly amongst the Meru (who nicknamed him 'Kagitoju' - a little rabbit with big ears because of his attentiveness). Margaret Johnson was born in Preston, Tyne and Wear in 1906. She trained as a nurse and worked in North Shields from 1923 until 1933. She consistently provided support for the mission, particularly with regard to the oversight of boarding and student welfare.

Whilst on furlough at Cambridge during 1937 and 1938 Laughton completed a master's dissertation entitled "An Introductory Study of the Meru People" and upon his return to Kenya continued to expand teaching and the training of teachers for the mission and government schools. In 1946 he founded and run a teacher training school in Meru and in 1957 he was appointed principal of Kagumo Teacher Training College near Nyeri which was an Anglican institution. During the Mau Mau uprising he assisted the Kenyan Police as an interpreter.

In 1961 they returned to England with Laughton (assisted by his wife again) taking up responsibility for overseas students at the Institute of Education at the University of Hull until 1972. Harry Laughton died at Stillingfleet, Yorkshire, on the last day of 1996, with his wife, Margaret, dying a few years later on 20 July 2000.

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Gift, accepted on behalf of the Methodist Church, from Ms R Alison Lewis, September 2009

Catalogued

For permission to publish, please contact Archives & Special Collections, SOAS Library in the first instance

Copyright held by Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes

Ms R Alison Lewis acquired this item upon the death of A J Hopkins in 1965