Leonard Sharp

Leonard E. S. Sharp was an English doctor and surgeon who served as a medical missionary in East Africa from 1914 to 1955. He worked in various regions across Uganda and modern-day Rwanda alongside his longtime professional partner and friend Algernon Stanley Smith. He received awards from the british queen Elizabeth II and the Royal African Society for his work.

Early life Sharp was born in Wimbledon, England in 1889. He met Algernon Stanley Smith at school, who would become his lifelong partner in his missionary service. Smith would also go on to marry Sharp's sister, Lillian Zoe Sharp (1891-1980). In 1920, Sharp married his wife Esther McDonald and shortly after the pair, alongside Algernon and his wife, ventured to Uganda as missionaries.

Mission During World War I, Sharp served as an officer in the African Medical Corps at Mengo Hospital, Uganda which was operating as a war hospital at the time. The Church Missionary Society declined due to a lack of funds. Sharp and Smith then returned to England in 1919 to conduct an independent fundraising effort.

Sharp's Island Sharp started a leper colony on Bwana Island on Lake Bunyonyi as a branch of the Kabale hospital in 1930, colloquially known as “Sharp’s Island”.

The island began with the 25 patients that had been staying at Kabale Hospital and over the next 18 years, the island would see over two thousand new patients. He also wrote a small book titled “Great Truths from God’s Word”. He was awarded an MBE award from Queen Elizabeth II as well.