The People: Churchmen |
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Born
in Exeter in 1820, Henry Townsend showed an early desire to be a missionary.
Sent as a teacher to Sierra Leone in 1836, aged 21, he became sympathetic towards
the situation of the freed Yoruba slaves, many of whom wished to return to their
homeland in what is now Nigeria.
Townsend volunteered to work for the Church Missionary Society, in Abeokuta
from 1843.
He returned to Exeter in 1876. During a period of leave in 1868, he gave a selection of the items he had collected to the new museum in his home town. They now form an invaluable picture of aspects of mid-19th century Yoruba life.
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To
find out more about the Yoruba visit the MOLLi
Yoruba website. Also see the MOLLi
Bosence website to see more West African textiles.
In 1931 Dyson donated about 160 items from various parts of the world: Syria, Palestine, Asia, Australasia, South Africa and the Americas. This material was collected between the years 1885 and 1889 when he sailed around the world.
Dyson graduated from Trinity College in 1899 with a Masters degree, presumably in theology. He then pursued a career in the church, begun in 1890, that was to occupy the rest of his life. His appointments in Devon began in Littleham, Exmouth, where he was Curate from 1911-17 and Vicar from 1917-23. From 1926-29 he was Rural Dean of Aylesbeare and Vicar to the same parish from 1923-31.
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