Jeff Woolgar
Mr. William Spencer Walton (left) and Mr. Albert A. Head (right). President: Council: H.W. Maynard, Esq., St. Aubyn’s, Wimbledon. T.B. Miller, Esq., The Chase, Hadley Common, Barnet.
(Chairman of Mission to Deep-Sea Fishermen.) H.W. Fry, Esq., Dashwood House, London.
(Hon. Secretary, Railway Mission.) Arthur Day, Esq., Mayfield, Lancaster Rd., Wimbledon. Hon. Treasurer: Hon. Secretary: Director: Hon. Auditor: Referees: Rev. Mark Guy Pearse, 11 Bedford Place, Russell Square, London. F.B. Meyer, Regents’s Park Chapel, London. Rev. Frank White, Chepstow Villas, Bayswater. Dr. Soltau Eccles, Lyndhurst, Church Road, Norwood.
Dr. E. Cronin, The Old Manor House, Clapham. J.E. Mathieson, Esq., Mildmay Conference Hall, London. Capt. Clay, Highfield, Upper Beulah Hill, Norwood. John Dixon, Esq., Gildabrook, Eccles, Manchester. J. Hargraves Bridgford, Esq., Kenilworth, Christchurch. [Cape Town] Reg. Radcliffe, Esq., 1 Victoria Street, Liverpool. Mr. John McAuliffe, Loraine Villa, Tunbridge Wells.
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(The portraits are not contemporary with the establishment of The Cape General Mission.)
Mr. W. Spencer Walton (an independent evangelist since 1885) started The Cape General Mission. Mrs. Head interviewed candidates
who offered to go to Cape Colony. They were invited to stay at Corrie Lodge, Wimbledon, the home of Mrs. Caroline Head (née Hanbury)
and Mr. Albert Alfred Head, in order to become acquainted with them before they went to southern Africa.
'The Cape General Mission' was founded on the 12th March 1889 and in September half a dozen workers arrived in Cape Town.
Their first meeting place was in a loft. This was situated in a back yard, and reached by a ladder ‘which had seen better days’.
Thus they secured their first office, with packing cases for desks.1
They were soon holding weekly meetings at the YMCA, which seated 300. Later a benefactor offered to buy a site and erect a building.
The three memorial stones were laid by Mrs. Osborn, Miss McGill and Mr. J. A. Bam, on the 7th January 1890,
and the building opened on the 13th May.
The opening services in the Hall were followed by a week of special meetings.
However, this was tinged with sadness, for three weeks before the Hall was to open, Spencer Walton’s young wife,
Kathleen Mary Walton (née Dixson), gave birth to a Son, and some days later she was taken ill and died on 24th of May.
By January 1890, Walton's journeys took him some 3,000 miles around southern Africa. With other workers,
they held meetings in towns such as Kimberley, Beaconsfield, Beaufoet West and Winburg in the Orange Free State and so on.
Mr. Coats worked amongst the railway men, black and white.
Mr. Dudley Kidd preached in Cape Colony and Kimberley. Later they expanded into Swazieland and the Transkei.
There was such enthusiasm for their mission that Mr. Frank Huskisson gave up his business to dedicate his whole time to the work of The Cape General Mission.
These were the first few years of 'The Cape General Mission', which would soon change its name and as a larger mission,
would spread across southern Africa and into Rhodesia.
The following are the names of those who undertook the administration of 'The Cape General Mission' and their supporters.
The small pamphlet is undated, however The British Library state '1889'.2
Rev. Andrew Murray. [Cape Colony.]
A.A. Head, Esq., Sunnyside, Richmond Hill.
H.W Maynard, Esq., St. Aubyn’s, Wimbledon.
Arthur Day, Esq., Mayfield, Lancaster Rd., Wimbledon.
Mr. W. Spencer Walton, (London Address) – Versailles Rd., Anerley, Nr. London.
R. Everett, Esq., Messrs. Everett & Whibley, 13 King William Street, London, E.C.
Rev E.W. Moore, M.A., Emmanuel Church Vicarage, Wimbledon.
1 Weeks, Rev. G.E., (1907), W. Spencer Walton, "Approved of God to be intrusted with the Gospel", London, passim
2 Walton, W.S., [1889], Cape General Mission, South Africa, Marshall Bros, London;
[ British Library; Shelfmark: 4766.a.17.(3.) ].