James Hannington

James Hannington (3 September 1847 – 29 October 1885) was an English Anglican missionary and martyr. He was the first Anglican bishop of East Africa.

Early life

Hannington was born on 3 September 1847 at Hurstpierpoint in Sussex, England, about eight miles from Brighton, where his father ran a warehouse, and was part of the family that ran Hanningtons department stores. His father, Charles Smith Hannington, had recently acquired the property known as St George's. During his childhood, Hannington was a collector and he blew off his thumb with black powder.

For Hannington's early education a tutor had been engaged, but when he was thirteen he was sent to the Temple School at Brighton, where he remained for the next two-and-a-half years, although he was an indifferent student. and rose to the rank of major. At twenty-one, Hannington decided to pursue a clerical career, and entered university at St Mary Hall, Oxford; he was President of the Red Club and captain of the St Mary Hall Boat. and took a curacy of Martinhoe with Trentishoe, Devon. Having been ordained priest, in 1875 James became curate-in-charge at St George's, Hurstpierpoint where he stayed until volunteering for missionary work in East Africa in 1882. Together with his team, he safely reached a spot near Lake Victoria on 21 October, but, under the orders of Mwanga II of Buganda, the missionaries were imprisoned in Basoga by Basoga chiefs. Hannington memorial in Holy Trinity, HurstpierpointAfter eight days of captivity, Hannington's porters were killed on Mwanga II's orders, and on 29 October 1885, Hannington himself was speared in both sides in Kyando village.

James Hannington is honoured in the Church of England and in the Episcopal Church on 29 October. A dedication stone, erected in his memory along with the Bishop Hannington Memorial Church, West Blatchington, Hove, England in 1938, bears the inscription "Thou hast turned my heaviness into joy".