Letters from the past – discovery of archive to help tell missionary’s story

dundee: Legacy of ‘Granny Watson’ is Presbyterian Church of East Africa

She was the Dundee-born teacher and missionary who overcame drought, famine and disease in East Africa during the early 20th Century to fulfil her mission of spreading the Gospel.

Now, handwritten letters, documents and photographs that belonged to Minnie Watson – the first female Presbyterian missionary in Kenya – have been saved for the nation. The collection casts fresh light on the extraordinary life and legacy of the little-known Mrs Watson, who was one of the founders of the Presbyterian Church in Kenya.

The priceless archive has gathered dust in a cupboard in Dundee for nearly 70 years but the Church of Scotland missionary’s great-niece, Paddy McFarlane, has decided to gift them to the National Library of Scotland.

The gesture will enable the public to better understand the colossal impact Mrs Watson, née Cumming, had on the former British colony where she worked to spread the gospel from 1899-1931.

Known as the “mother of the faith”, her legacy is the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, which has 3.5 million members and a network of schools, hospitals and universities.

Minnie Cumming was employed by Dundee School Board before she followed her fiancé, Rev Thomas Watson, to Kenya in 1899, after he established the Scottish Mission in Kikuyu near Nairobi.

They married and, in their first year together, had to face a smallpox epidemic and a devastating famine which wiped out huge numbers of people.

Mr Watson, of Monifeith, Angus, died of pneumonia in 1900, leaving his 32-year-old wife to assume responsibility for the project. She ran the mission station single-handedly with “heroic, untiring zeal” for a year until the Church of Scotland took over responsibility.

Known to pupils as Granny Watson, among the many children who came into her care was Jomo Kenyatta, who served as president between 1964 and 1978, and is now considered the founding father of the Kenyan nation.

Paddy McFarlane, above, with items Minnie Watson brought back from Kenya. Top, Minnie Watson outside her house, and above, right, in Africa, where she was the only white woman in the region.