Emily Godfrey Photograph Collection

The collection contains photographs and negatives documenting the work of Emily Godfrey at the Methodist Hospital at Ama Achara run by the Primitive Methodist Missionary Society in modern Abia state, southeast Nigeria. It includes: six exercise book albums of black and white photographs; three lantern slides; loose black and white photographs (some mounted); and photographic negatives.

Nurse Emily Godfrey (1884-1978) was a missionary for the Primitive Methodist Missionary Society (the Methodist Missionary Society after 1932). From 1921 to 1944, Emily Godfrey worked as the Matron of the hospital run by the Primitive Methodist Missionary Society in Ama Achara near Umuahia in modern Abia state, southeast Nigeria.

Godfrey was born in Loftus, Cleveland, United Kingdom and trained as a nurse in York County Hospital in 1913. After serving in military hospitals during the First World War (1914-1918) and receiving the Royal Red Cross Medal, she worked at the Welsh Hospital, Netley, Southampton, before being accepted into the Primitive Methodist Missionary Society in 1919. Godfrey trained as a missionary at Kingsmead Missionary Training College. After spending most of her missionary career at Ama Achara, Godfrey went to South Africa from 1946 to 1949 to set up a training hospital at Thaba Nchu. She then returned to the United Kingdom, settling in Middlesbrough where she died in 1978.

Open to researchers. It is essential to arrange an appointment in advance to view the archive in order that someone can be available to help. Please contact us by email at is-crc@ed.ac.uk . Telephone the Centre on: 0131 650 8900. Postal address: Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh School of Divinity, New College, Mound Place, Edinburgh, EH1 2LX.

A paper catalogue to the collection is available at the Centre.

This description was written and added to Archives Hub in August 2012 by Louise Williams.

Reproduction of materials (for example by digital camera) is free for private research and educational use, although we ask researchers to sign an agreement. Please contact us for enquiries on using the material in a commercial setting, for which there will be a fee. Contact us by email at is-crc@ed.ac.uk . Telephone the Centre on: 0131 650 8900. Postal address: Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh School of Divinity, New College, Mound Place, Edinburgh, EH1 2LX.

No further additions to the collection are expected.

The School of African and Oriental Studies, London, holds a collection related to Emily Godfrey (GB0102 MS380758).