Henry Graham

Henry Graham (born in 1806) served as a missionary to Sierra Leone, Africa with the Church Missionary Society from 1829 to 1832. Graham served as the first medical missionary within the Church Missionary Society, one of the largest organizers of mission trips at the time. As such, Graham was a trailblazer in the role and worked to find appropriate balance between medical and religious duties and values in missionary service.

In addition to his medical efforts, Graham took it upon himself to reopen the area's Sunday school for adults and apprentices, helping to teach lessons in reading and scripture. Through successes and hardships, ranging from medical feats to the death of his wife, Graham remained steadfastly pious; he attributed all occurrences to God's greater plan.

In comparison to other missionaries and medical officers, Graham placed a rare emphasis on helping and learning from the natives of Sierra Leone. Due to his eagerness to learn from native colonial surgeon, Dr. Boyle, he contributed to introducing unfamiliar African medical practices to the CMS and England, such as the use of Ergot and Rye in midwifery. Graham made efforts to somewhat immerse himself into Sierra Leone's native population, studying the Eyó dialect through conversations with local Oku people. Graham demonstrates an alteration to the customary dynamic between missionary and native and strengthened relations in Sierra Leone.

Straying from his primary reason for recruitment, to provide medical assistance to those connected to the Mission in Sierra Leone, Graham dedicated much of his time to providing assistance to the natives, playing a role in his eventual removal from the Mission in 1832.

Early life and education Graham, originating from Oxford, was born in 1806 to parents Christopher and Sarah Graham. He was one of at least three children, with older sister, Mary Graham (1804), and younger brother, Robert Frederic Graham (1808). He attended Christian Missionary Society College, Islington in 1827 and studied medicine under Dr. Whiting, honorary medical advisor of the CMS's Committee of Correspondence (the board that supervised mission operations). Graham married his first wife, Susannah Pharoah on August 28, 1829, who died in Africa on March 31, 1831. Prior to Mr. Graham's introduction, illness and death were common among the CMS Sierra Leone missionaries and the natives, with fever and dysentery being the most common afflictions. The resulting short service and often changing missionaries inhibited the mission's progress and impact in the area. The Society recruited Graham, their first ever medical missionary, Graham would provide the Committee of Correspondence, back in London, with quarterly reports. Mr. Graham spent his time attending to the missionaries and their family members in Gloucester as well as the surrounding areas. The committee was displeased with his desire to return to England to study surgery for a year in order to more effectively help the natives, seeing the request as inconsistent with this his reason for recruitment—to assist European missionaries in combating local diseases. Similarly, the CMS disproved of Graham's desire to become an ordained minister, considering it a loss of focus. In addition, Graham's marriage to the widowed Mrs. Davey, a woman accused of misconduct within CMS, led to the dissolution of Graham's connection to the Mission. Graham resided in Sierra Leone for the rest of his life as an apothecary.

End of life Henry Graham died in Sierra Leone in July 1837 from yellow fever. Sierra Leone was in a state of great unease at the time, with upwards of 40,000 individuals being ill with yellow fever.