Rev Dr Samuel W Hynd

Medical Missionary Born December 18, 1924; Died August 18, 2016. DR SAMUEL Hynd, who has died aged 91, was a Scots-born medical missionary who spent his life in Swaziland and became its minister for health.

Born in Glasgow, he was taken to Swaziland in 1925 as a baby of six months. His parents, Dr and Mrs David Hynd, established the Nazarene hospital there, and later several schools and colleges and many clinics and churches.

Samuel himself, after returning to Glasgow for medical and ordination studies was appointed a missionary to Swaziland in 1950 and served at the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital in Manzini.

Succeeding his father, as head of the Manzini mission station in 1961, he raised funds to build a totally new hospital, then a state-of-the art building and still in use today. Swaziland gained independence from Britain in 1968, and he later served in parliament and became Minister of Health in the government of King Sobhuza II.

For many years, the Hynd family had a close association with the Swazi royal family, serving as medical advisers. Dr Hynd presided at the birth of the prince who became Swaziland’s present king, Mswati III.

Samuel Wilson Hynd was born in December 1924 in the Glasgow home of his grandfather, Rev. Dr George Sharpe, the founder of the Church of the Nazarene in the British Isles, who was then Missionary Superintendent for the denomination for Africa, India and the Middle East.

He grew up a ‘Scottish Swazi’ or ‘Swazi Scot’, learning fluent SiSwati from his playmates, and committed his life to Christ under the ministry of a Swazi preacher, Rev. Joseph Mkhwanazi.

Taking his first degree, in science, at Witwatersrand University, Samuel Hynd returned to the University of Glasgow – where his parents had both studied – to take his medical qualifications.

Returning to Swaziland in 1950, he worked alongside his father at the hospital. Father and son were to be active in the work of Nazarene mission schools, the Swaziland Council of Churches, the Swaziland branch of the Red Cross (which David Hynd founded), and many other agencies.

While engaged in the building programme for the new Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital, Samuel Hynd suffered the loss of his wife, Rosemarie, in a car accident on New Years’ Day, 1975, involving a mishap with the family car, parked at the top of a slope. He was subsequently remarried, to nursing tutor Phyllis McNeil from Kansas, who also predeceased him in 2008.

After he left the Ministry of Health, they both ran a clinic in Manzini for many years, until Samuel reluctantly retiredattheageof86.Eventhenhis commitment to the people of Swaziland continued. The AIDS epidemic has been devastating in Swaziland and he spent the decade from age 80 to age 90, raising the funds and spearheading the building of a new clinic specialising in AIDS treatment.

In addition to being made a CBE in 1998, he received the Order of Eswatini from Mswati III in 2008, was awarded the honorary degree of D.Sc. by the University of Swaziland in 2001.

He is survived by his sister, Dr Margaret Klein, three daughters, Dr Elizabeth Hynd, Mrs Audrey Emmet, and Mrs Margaret Timney, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Telephone 0141-302 6000 or by e-mail at announcements@heraldandtimes.co.uk