John Thomas
Missionary to South IndiaJohn Thomas came from a Welsh hill-farming family. He never went to university, but trained as a solicitor’s clerk. Thomas felt a strong call to work as a missionary and after training at the CMS clergy college, in 1863, he sailed to India. Hard-working and loving, but allowing no other opinion than his own, Thomas converted many to the Christian faith. In the village of Megnanapuram, he constructed a magnificent church in Victorian-Gothic style that for many years had the tallest church spire in India. When he died in 1870 he left behind Christian communities that continued to grow and mature long after the British Raj had passed away.
William Kemm, John Thomas’s great-great-grandson, tells the fascinating story of a pioneer missionary’s life.