Famous Scots. John. Arthur.

John William Arthur OBE (1881, Glasgow – 1952, Edinburgh) was a medical missionary and Church of Scotland minister who served in British East Africa (Kenya) from 1907 to 1937. He was known simply as Doctor Arthur to generations of Africans.

Early life and education in Scotland

John William Arthur was the son of John W. Arthur, a Glasgow businessman of firm evangelical Christian convictions. Arthur wanted to be a missionary from an early age. He was educated at Glasgow Academy and the University of Glasgow from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery in 1903. He graduated with the Doctor of Medicine degree in 1906. He was ordained (following a special short course in theology) as a minister of the Church of Scotland in 1915 and was married in 1921.

Missionary work in East Africa

Medical missionary

Arthur was appointed to the post of medical missionary at the Kikuyu Mission, British East Africa (Kenya), in 1906, arriving at the mission on 1 January 1907. He opened the mission’s first hospital and became involved with its evangelistic and educational began work on the first school on the Kikuyu Mission Station within six weeks of his arrival in Kenya. He was also pivotal in the several other missions in Kenya, such as the Chogoria mission. He invited Dr. Archibald Irvine to join, who then went on to establish a hospital, a church, and two schools in Chogoria still used today. One of the many Africans influenced by Arthur and the mission was Jomo Kenyatta, who was a student at the mission station school. Arthur performed surgery on Kenyatta, when the latter was still known as Johnstone Kamau. Kenyatta was a student in his early years in the mission, but the Church demanded that if he went on to secondary school that he should join the Church, but Kenyatta refused and became a clerk in Nairobi. In later years, Kenyatta spoke warmly of the Kikuyu Mission station as the pioneer centre of Kenyan education.

Arthur’s zeal and capacity for work led to him being honoured by the Kikuyu with the tribal name Rigitari (“Doctor”).

Mission leader

Arthur succeeded Henry E. Scott as head of the mission on Scott’s death in 1911 and served in that capacity until 1937. After a short course of theological study, he was ordained in 1915 and increasingly concentrated on ministerial matters rather than medical practice. He oversaw the mission during a period of notable growth: when he joined the mission staff, there were no baptised Christians among the Kikuyu people; by the time of his retirement, the membership of the Christian community in Kikuyu numbered nearly 11,000. The rapid growth in membership necessitated the building of the Church of the Torch which was completed between 1927 and 1933. The Church of the Torch is still one of the largest and most influential congregations within the Presbyterian Church of East Africa today. Upon becoming president, Jomo Kenyatta presented the Church of the Torch with new doors.

Championing education for Africans

Many colonialists were opposed to allowing Africans any education beyond the most basic level, taking the view that Africans were incapable of benefiting from education. Others felt that it was best only to give African Kenyans just enough education to make them useful as labour. Arthur strongly opposed this attitude. He believed that Kenyans (and indeed all Africans in British colonies) should be given access to primary, secondary and tertiary education. In the 1920s he was prominent in the leadership of a group of missionaries and others who succeeded in convincing the British government to open up education not only for Kenyans, but for Africans in all the colonies. Thus, in many ways, Arthur is one of the fathers of education in the whole continent of Africa.

At the AHS Speech Day in 1953, the school’s second principal, Carey Francis, announced the death of Arthur. It was decided that in his honour and to remember his special contribution to the establishment of AHS, a house would be named after him, Arthur House. The official history of Alliance High School credits Arthur as being the most significant individual in the foundation of the school.

Female genital mutilation controversy

Under a barrage of criticism, Arthur resigned from the Legislative Council and his reputation in Government circles as a voice of African interests was irreversibly damaged. The Kenya Government Department of Native Affairs were scathing in their assessment of the FGM controversy, describing Arthur as being “fanatical” in his views.  Arthur had misread the political mood of the Kikuyu. In adhering to his principles, he paid a heavy price. Nevertheless, he maintained the confidence of his missionary colleagues and many Kikuyu Christians.

Despite this devastating setback, Arthur continued his missionary work with zeal. MacPherson notes that apart from masterminding the construction of the Church of the Torch, Arthur devoted his last years in Kenya to building up indigenous church leaders, for the day that the Church would become fully independent of missionaries.

Ministry after Africa