ONE LOVELY BLOG

I've been nominated for the ONE LOVELY BLOG award by talented author and stimulating blogger Terry Tyler. You can find her post here 

Here are the rules for the One Lovely Blog Award:

• Thank the person that nominated you and link back to that blog. 

• Share seven things about yourself – see below.

• Nominate 15 bloggers you admire – also listed below.

• Contact your bloggers to let them know you've tagged them for the ONE LOVELY BLOG AWARD 

If I've nominated your blog, please don't feel under any obligation to join in.  I am just pleased to recommend your blog here.

So at the risk of boring you, here are 7 things about me:-

I have always been a book worm and after over 30 years running a junior school library I am especially fond of authors like Rosemary Sutcliff, Joan Aiken and Philip Reeve. These days I am actually moving from Young Adult books into adult books but I may revert! 

 History has always been very important to me. I taught Tudor history for many years but my particular interest is Victorian London, where my barge building and lightermen ancestors lived.

 I am a volunteer researcher for St Luke’s Hospital Heritage Project and we have established an exhibition and a bank of artefacts and digital resources in the old Casual Ward of Guildford Workhouse.  I love finding out about the lives of individual workhouse inmates, nurses in the War Hospital and what happened to the workhouse children who were sent to a new life in Canada. You can read about our project here:-

 I have been researching my family history since 1998.  While searching for ancestors in Scotland, Ireland, East Anglia, Berkshire and south London I have discovered distant cousins in the United States, Canada, Australia and South Africa, some of whom have become good friends.

The Far East is a special place for me.  I lived in Singapore for 3 years in my late teens and have revisited twice in recent years.  The changes have been dramatic but it is still a place of sunshine and flowers with a blend of customs from many cultures.  I first visited Hong Kong in 1967 and returned several times when my husband was working there.  It really is the city that never sleeps and is so exciting and vibrant.

Sunshine and the sea are a necessary part of life so my husband and I travel to the Algarve for a few days most months.  We have started Portuguese lessons and although reading with understanding is becoming much easier, speaking and understanding spoken Portuguese is much more difficult!

 

My guilty secret is my daily dose of Home & Away.  I would love to visit Summer Bay and meet those River Boys.

Here are my 15 blog recommendations:-

Lynn’s waffles

Deb Watkins

Ancestral Trials & Tribulations

Victorian Supersleuth

Georgia Traher

Essie Fox

Lisette Brodey

Ursula writes

And then I read a book

Fleur in her world

Damyanti writes

Grace Elliot

Lyndsey Smith

Forgotten Bodysnatchers

Flickering lamps

My book reviews are moving to new site.  You will find them at Lizannelloyd lost in a good book

http://lizannelloyd.wordpress.com/  You can reach it by pressing the tab above.

Eaten by Cannibals

The story of John Williams, missionary

Yesterday a photo of the ship halfpenny, used in Britain from 1937 until 1969, was posted on Twitter. As soon as I saw it I was back in my Sunday school class in the late 1950s putting my ha’pennies into the collection box for the John Williams VI missionary ship.

As you might expect John Williams VI was the sixth ship of that name, but who was John Williams?  John Williams was born in Tottenham in 1796 and he became an apprentice to an ironmonger where he worked in the foundry and as a mechanic. Originally brought up as a Baptist, he joined the Congregational Church and in 1816 knew that he wanted to be a missionary.  He was commissioned by the London Missionary Society at the circular Surrey Chapel in Blackfriars Road, Southwark.  The LMS had been set up to, “Spread the knowledge of Christ among the heathen and other unenlightened nations.”

John Williams

In 1817 John and his wife Mary set out for the Society Islands, an archipelago which includes Tahiti. They were accompanied by William Ellis, another missionary, and his wife. After a long voyage via Australia and New Zealand they arrived at the island of Raiatea where John and Mary Williams established a missionary post, from where John could visit several other Polynesian island chains.  This included the undiscovered island of Rarotonga, covered in dense jungle on a mountain of orange soil surrounded by a coral reef and a turquoise lagoon.

In 1821 John revisited Sydney where he preached and addressed public meetings.  He was influential in the later establishment of the Aboriginal Protection Society.  He bought a ship to trade between Raiatea and Sydney and employed Thomas Scott to instruct the Raiatean people in growing tobacco and sugar cane.

John and Mary had 10 children and they were the first mission family to visit Samoa.  By 1834 Mary was quite unwell so she and John returned to England.  They were accompanied by Leota from Samoa, who wished to live as a Christian in London.  When he died he was buried in Abney Park Cemetery.  John published his, “Narrative of Missionary Enterprise.” Appealing to the public, he raised £4000 to purchase a ship, the Camden, and he also supervised the printing of a New Testament in the Rarotongan language.

In 1837 John and Mary returned to the Polynesian Islands to continue their mission.  In Tahiti, John built a boat, “Messenger of Peace,” and later another, “Olive Branch.”

Sadly in 1839 when John Williams visited the island of Erromango in the New Hebrides, accompanied by fellow missionary James Harris, they were clubbed to death and eaten by cannibals.  In December 2009 descendants of John Williams travelled to Erromango to accept the apologies of descendants of the cannibals at a ceremony of reconciliation.

John Williams VI

The London Missionary Society were able to purchase a new ship to continue John’s work using money raised by “Juvenile Friends,” a fund collected by children in the Congregational Church.  The ship “John William” was launched in 1844 and set sail from Gravesend with new missionaries.  Over the years there were seven John Williams ships, the last “John Williams VII” being decommissioned in the 1970s.

To read more about John Williams please go to:-

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Williams_(missionary)#mediaviewer/File:John_Williams_Missionaryfamilytomb.jpg

http://tottenham-summerhillroad.com/john_williams_possessions_documents.htm