Rev John Henry Hirst

Papers mainly relating to Hirst's involvement with a missionary deputation to Fernando Po [Bioko, Equatorial Guinea] and Nigeria by the Primitive Methodist Church including diaries (November 1920 to April 1921); collected papers relating to the missions in Fernando Po and in Nigeria (particularly Nara, Uzuakoli and Oron), 1920s-1930s; photographs of Hirst and his colleagues, 1920s & undated; biographical notes on Hirst by his daughter, ?1990.

The Rev J H Hirst was born in 1871 into a family that had been involved for the previous three generations with the Primitive Methodist Church. He grew up under the care of both his parents and grand-parents and after a brief stint as a pupil-teacher he began an apprenticeship in a pharmacy. However, his involvement in Methodism continued and he became a local preacher in Whitby in Yorkshire. After being ordained his first posting was to Derby in 1892. The next year he moved to Clay Cross in Derbyshire and married Alice M Evans in 1895. From 1896 until 1914 he worked in a number of chapels and circuits in Yorkshire. After 1902 he refused to pay the newly introduced education rate and found himself briefly imprisoned on a few occasions. After nearly two years in Staffordshire he moved to Birmingham in 1916. Whilst still at Birmingham he undertook his first overseas missionary deputation (to West Africa) in 1920 & 1921 in the company of the Rev J T Barksby, Foreign Missionary Secretary of the Primitive Methodist Church. In 1923 he took over from Rev Barksby as the Foreign Missionary Secretary and remained in this post until 1928. His last positing was to Birkenhead, Cheshire, where he also served as a governor of Hartley College in Manchester. He died in August 1929.

(The above is in part based on a biographical note by his daughter, Marjorie E South, which can be found within these papers).

Open

Transferred to SOAS by the Methodist Church in June 1990.

Catalogued

Copyright held by various

Deposited with the Methodist Church Overseas Division in May 1990 by Mrs Marjorie E South of Windsor, Berkshire.

Correspondence by or relating to the Rev Hirst can be found within the Primitive Methodist section of the (Wesleyan) Methodist Missionary Archive, including condolence letters upon his death (MMS/PMMS/Home/Correspondence/FBN 2).