CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY ARCHIVE

Section IV: Africa Missions
Part 14: Egypt, 1889-1934

This begins our coverage of the Egypt Mission and comprises Letter Books for 1889-1934 and Original Papers for 1890-1922.  The Anglican Church in Egypt grew as a partnership between the missionaries and the British expatriates who had built churches and formed small congregations in Cairo and elsewhere.

• These records allow researchers to explore CMS work carried out under the guidance of Llewellyn Gwynne who became assistant bishop of Khartoum in 1908. In 1920 he became bishop of the newly created diocese of Egypt and the Sudan.
• The materials reveal a strong emphasis on education with Cairo the main centre for both boys’ and girls’ schools.
• Old Cairo Hospital was opened in 1889 under Dr Frank Harpur and many documents focus on his work.
• Early papers cover the activities of F A Klein in Cairo in the 1890s.
• There is also good material on the work of Douglas Thornton and W H Temple Gairdner who started the famous magazine in Arabic on religious and general subjects called Orient and Occident.  There is a significant extract from Thornton’s paper on The Educational Problem in Egypt.