John Arthur

John William Arthur, OBE, MD (born Glasgow, 1881, died Edinburgh, 1952) 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 Glasgow University from where he graduated M.B., Ch.B. (Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery) in 1903. He graduated with the Doctor of Medicine degree MD 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
[Church.JPG|left|thumb|The Scott-Watson Memorial Church, Kikuyu Mission station, birthplace of the Alliance of Protestant Missions]

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. One of the many Africans influenced by Arthur and the mission was Jomo Kenyatta, who was a student at the mission station school. It is a fact that Dr 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 regularly 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

[of the Torch.JPG|thumb| The Church of the Torch, Kikuyu]

Source @ Wikipedia