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School of Oriental and African Studies

Gray, S Douglas


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0102 MMS/Special Series/Biographical/Central Africa/FBN 15-20 (Boxes 613-623)

Held at: School of Oriental and African Studies

Title: Gray, S Douglas

Date(s): 1910-1962

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 11 boxes

Name of creator(s): Gray | Sidney Douglas | 1883-1963 | missionary

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born in Rockferry, Birkenhead, England, 1883; trained at Didsbury theological college; ordained as a Wesleyan Methodist minister; served the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society at Chipembi, northern Rhodesia (later Zambia), 1910-1915; chaplain to the armed forces, 1915-1917; returned as missionary to northern Rhodesia, 1917; instrumental in the development of Chipembi mission station and its circuit, although his treks in the Luano Valley did not result in permanent missionary endeavour there owing to shortages of money and manpower; served the Selukewe, Salisbury, Broken Hill, Lusaka, Nambala and Kafue circuits; reduced the language of the Bene-Mukuni to writing, translating part of the Bible and producing a vernacular hymnbook; began the first girls' secondary school in northern Rhodesia at Chipembi, 1928; supernumerary from 1951; subsequently served at Chingola; MBE; married, firstly, Louie (née Barrett) and, secondly, Dorothy Mabel Christian (née Hicks); died, 1963. Publications: articles and books on missionary subjects.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers, 1910-1962, of the Rev S Douglas Gray, comprising personal correspondence, 1910-1940s; personal papers, 1910-1950, among them journals and diary and autobiographical extracts, including accounts of journeys in Rhodesia (later Zambia), addresses on missionary work, notes for sermons, and papers on Gray's furloughs, MBE, health, and retirement; papers relating to missionary work, including correspondence with Missionary Society officials, 1924-1954, correspondence and papers on medical, educational, and evangelistic matters and on indigenous customs including marriage, 1919-1962, and printed material, 1911-1940s; circular letters and circuit and district reports, 1912-1951, on various circuits in north and south Rhodesia; papers, 1911-1955, largely typescript, on general missionary affairs in Rhodesia; correspondence with Oliver Roebuck, 1923-1925, 1930, and Roebuck's diary, 1923.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Unrestricted, but only to be viewed on microfiche.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to archivist in the first instance.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

Unpublished handlist.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

The papers were deposited with the Methodist Missionary Society and form part of the special series of biographical papers of individual missionaries.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Deposited on permanent loan with the records of the Methodist Missionary Society from 1978.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Published on microfiche by IDC Publishers.

Related material:

The School of Oriental and African Studies holds the records of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society (Ref: MMS/WMMS), succeeded in 1932 by the Methodist Missionary Society.

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project. Source: Wesleyan Methodist Church Minutes of Conference (1963), p 203.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: Mar 2002


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
African cultures | National cultures
Autobiographies | Prose | Literary forms and genres | Literature
Awards | Social norms | Social behaviour
Clergy | Religious groups
Customs and traditions | Cultural heritage
Diaries | Nonfiction | Prose | Literary forms and genres | Literature
Educational missionaries | Missionaries | Religious groups
Educational missionary work | Missionary work | Religious activities
Evangelistic missionaries | Missionaries | Religious groups
Evangelistic missionary work | Missionary work | Religious activities
Medical missionary work | Missionary work | Religious activities
Methodism | Protestant nonconformity | Protestantism | Christianity | Ancient religions | Religions
Methodists | Protestant nonconformists | Protestants | Christians | Religious groups
Mission administration | Mission policy | Missionary societies | Religious organizations | Religious institutions
Ordained missionaries | Missionaries | Religious groups
Religious movements | Religious institutions
Sermons | Religious texts | Religious doctrines | Theology
Travel abroad | Travel
Marriage
Nonconformists
Nonconformity
Primary documents

Personal names
Gray | Sidney Douglas | 1883-1963 | missionary
Roebuck | Oliver | 1896-1966 | missionary

Corporate names
Methodist Missionary Society
Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society

Places
Zambia | Southern Africa
Zimbabwe | Southern Africa