Edward John Baxter

Edward John Baxter (22 June 1853 – 5 November 1939) was an English medical missionary doctor from the Church Mission Society who founded the medical station in Mpwapwa which became the current St Luke's Health Clinic in Tanzania. Baxter practiced in East Africa, Uganda, Mochi, Chaga, Mengo, and Mpwapwa.

Education and personal life In 1877, Edward Baxter attended Edinburgh University and School of Medicine (Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons). This was just before his first mission to Mpwapwa. Edward Baxter was born on 22 June 1853 in Norwood Green, Middlesex. His sister, Alice Mary Baxter, worked at the Mpwapwa mission. Baxter, himself, married Clara Elizabeth Worsley in Ealing on 9 January 1884. Worsley helped Baxter with his settlement in Mpwapwa and supported him in his missions. She died on 2 October 1935 in Coronado, California. Edward Baxter lost an infant child to disease in Africa in 1885. On 2 May 1888 Baxter and Worsley had a daughter by the name of Beatrice Mary (Nash).

Baxter travelled to many different locations in East Africa, including Mochi, Chaga, and Mengo, to provide care to people. Baxter, with his spouse Womsley, with Henry Cole, a lay missionary, and his second spouse Alice Mary Baxter, opened the station at Mpwapwa in 1879. Cole focused on the administrative aspects while Baxter built the clinical program.

In February 1879, Baxter planned to form a station in Ugogo. With the help of his men, he found a habitable area, however, water could only be accessed via spring. Additionally, due to an infestation of the Tsetse fly, sheep and oxen were not able to survive, preventing the men from accessing necessary supplies. This hospital was closed in the 1950s. In 1993, Rachel Tarling reopened the St Luke's Health Center in the Old Bishop's Rest House within the Cathedral Multi-purpose Complex.

On 5 November 1939 Edward John Baxter died in Hove, England.