South Africa General Mission

Cover addressed to Mrs. Head from the Rev. Coldstream Sampson

Addressed to Mrs Head.

The cover was sent to Mrs. Head in Wimbledon on 5^th December 1900 from Kenilworth, Cape Colony.

Annotated at top right corner is the name of the addressee, the Rev. Coldstream Sampson who was associated with the South Africa General Mission (SAGM) in Cape Town. In April 1893 he was invited to Basutoland with William Spencer Walton, where they held a Mission in the small town of Dordrecht. In the evening the church was full and on returning to the Cape they were pleased with their work which justified the expectations of its conveners.

For fifteen years he was a friend of William Spencer Walton (born 15^th January 1850), who founded the South African General Mission in 1889.¹ When Spencer Walton passed away on the 26^th August 1906,² Sampson wrote a tribute to William Spencer Walton's wife, Lena,³ in Tonbridge, Kent, England, which was later published during 1907.

“… To say that I shall miss him does not express the deep sense of loss I feel, … The kindness he always showed me in the fifteen years I have known him, will not easily be obliterated from my mind, and I mourn to think that I shall not again hear his cheery greeting, though I rejoice that I shall see him in the presence of the King, …”. ⁴

Notes and References

1 The Cape General Mission was founded on the 12^th March 1889, and from this organization,
The English Council arranged to amalgamated the Cape General Mission with the

Southeast Africa Evangelistic Mission to establish The South African General Mission.

William Spencer Walton returned to South Africa in September 1894, accompanied by three new

workers, to start a new chapter in their mission.

2 External References for William Spencer Walton: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/w/a/l/t/walton_ws.htm (active 2010 to 2020.)

3 Lena was William Spencer Walton's second wife, née Lena Gibson. They met and were engaged and married at
Wellington, Cape Colony, all in six months. Lean Walton writes: ‘It was a very unconventional wedding.

We spent our honeymoon on a Dutch farm, and on the Sunday Spencer took the service in a small country church.’

4 Weeks, G.E., (1907), W. Spencer Walton, "Approved of God to be intrusted with the Gospel", London, p.186.

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