Gerald Edgcumbe Hadow

Gerald Edgcumbe Hadow

Gerald Edgcumbe Hadow OBE was an English Christian missionary to East Africa in the mid-twentieth century. He was born on 13 June 1911 and died on 27 February 1978 in Cambridge, England.

Early life

He was the son of Canon Herbert Edgcumbe Hadow and Edith Rose Abell. He grew up at Quedgely Vicarage, Gloucestershire. He attended Haileybury College, leaving in about 1930. From there he went to Oriel College, Oxford University. His uncle was musician Sir William Henry Hadow and his aunt author Grace Eleanor Hadow.

He was a keen singer and was a Tenor Solo at Haileybury College.

Later life

He was ordained a priest at Bristol Cathedral in 1936. He was a missionary for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts in East Africa from 1939 to 1977. He served in Manda, Likoma and Milo, Tanzania. During this time in South Western Tanzania he was a regular visitor to Uwemba Mission in the Livingstone Mountains.

In 1961 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire.

In 1972 he was made Canon of the Diocese of South West Tanganyika

He was taken ill at Milo in 1977 and travelled back to Cambridge, where he died ten weeks later.

He was fluent in Swahili and also spoke Kipanga, the local tongue in Milo. He was interested in the different Swahili dialects.

References

Gloucestershire Record Office: Hadow Family Papers

Personal papers of his sister Rachael (Ray) Hadow formerly of Girton, Cambridge