Dr. George Prentice (1871–1948) is a Scottish missionary and served as a vicar for the Free Church of Scotland. He was one of the first to conduct missionary activities in southeastern Africa (modern-day Malawi) and was known for baptizing Malawi's first president,
Hastings Banda
Hastings Kamuzu Banda (1898 – 25 November 1997) was the Prime Minister of Malawi, prime minister and later President of Malawi, president of Malawi from 1964 to 1994 (from 1964 to 1966, Malawi was an independent Dominion / Commonwealth realm) ...
when Banda was his student from 1908 to 1914.
Biography
Prentice was born in 1871 at Mid-Greenwell, near
Carnwath
Carnwath (Gaelic: ''A' Chathair Nuadh''; English: "New Fort") is a moorland village on the southern edge of the Pentland Hills of South Lanarkshire, Scotland. The village lies about south of both Edinburgh and Glasgow. It is bounded by the Nort ...
in Lanarkshire to James and Christine Prentice (née Elder). His father worked as a farmer and owned 58 acres of land while his mother died in 1876. He spent his childhood living with his five brothers and sisters at Craigen House, Carnwath.
He moved to Edinburgh and was a medical student at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
. Three years later, he was qualified as a doctor at the university and obtained a
licentiate from both
Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) is a medical royal college in Scotland. It is one of three organisations that sets the specialty training standards for physicians in the United Kingdom. It was established by Royal charter ...
and
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow
The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, is an institute of physicians and surgeons in Glasgow, Scotland.
Founded by Peter Lowe after receiving a royal charter by James VI in 1599, as the Glasgow Faculty, it originally exist ...
in 1894.
He was ordained as a minister in 1894 by the
Old Free Church of Scotland and moved to Africa to conduct missionary activities.
Prentice worked with Dr. Robert Scott, a Scottish when he first settled in Africa. In 1897, during his Africa's journey, he toured the northern parts of
Luangwa valley
The Luangwa River is one of the major tributaries of the Zambezi River, and one of the four biggest rivers of Zambia. The river generally floods in the rainy season (December to March) and then falls considerably in the dry season. It is one of ...
, making contact with
Senga people
The Senga are an ethnic tribe of Zambia, distinct from the Nsenga.
The Senga are a tribe who migrated from the southern part of present-day Congo DRC. They re-settled in the Luangwa valley amongst the Tumbuka speaking people. The language they ...
who lived in large stockaded villages surrounded by thorn trees and visited Kamanga and seeing evidence of the Swahili dwellings among the
Bisa. According to an 1898 British Medical Registration record, he stayed at Loudon, Nyasaland.
Record also indicated that Prentice was in
Kasungu
Kasungu is a town in the Kasungu District of the Central Region of Malawi. The population of Kasungu was 58,653 according to the 2018 census.
Kasungu is approximately north-west of the capital of Malawi, Lilongwe, and is east of Kasungu N ...
in 1897 but had travelled to
Bandawe
Bandawe is a community in Malawi on the west shore of Lake Malawi. It is the site of one of the first Christian missions in Malawi, Bandawe Mission. This became the second location for Livingstonia Mission.
Bandawe Mission
The Livingstonia missi ...
. He opened seven schools in Kasungu after spending time there since 1897. He also established the Chilanga missionary station and was appointed head of the mission in October 1900 during his time in Kasungu.
During World War I, he joined as a Captain with the Column 3/1
King's African Rifles
The King's African Rifles (KAR) was a multi-battalion British colonial regiment raised from Britain's various possessions in East Africa from 1902 until independence in the 1960s. It performed both military and internal security functions within ...
and was later transferred to Column 4/1 as a medical officer. On 19 May 1917, he was appointed as temporary Captain with the Nyasaland Field Force.
On 12 February 1924, Prentice arrived in London from
Beira, Mozambique on board the Royal Mail Ship of HMHS Goorkha. Later on 12 August 1927, he departed from London for Biera on a Royal Mail Ship Electrician. He returned to Scotland in 1924 and spent time staying in Kennetpans,
Clackmannan
Clackmannan ( ; gd, Clach Mhanainn, perhaps meaning "Stone of Manau"), is a small town and civil parish set in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. Situated within the Forth Valley, Clackmannan is south-east of Alloa and south of Tillicoultry. Th ...
until somewhere around 1931.
During the 1930s and 1940s, he stayed at
Fort Jameson, During his time at Fort Jameson, George farmed tobacco on the farm named Nchere Hill in
Northern Rhodesia (modern-day
Zambia
Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...
) and died there in 1948. He was buried at Aylmer May Cemetery, Rhodes Park,
Lusaka
Lusaka (; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was ab ...
.
Family
Prentice married Agnes Tudhope Scott on 10 May 1900 at the St Michael and All Angels Cathedral in
Blantyre
Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, L ...
, Nyasaland. The couple had four children:
* Margaret Christina Prentice - born in 1902, at Kasungu, Nyasaland and 1903 British General Medical Registration for lists him as being at Kasungu, Ngara, British Central Africa
* Isabel Agnes Scott Prentice - born on 26 Feb 1906 at The Orchard, Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire, Scotland. George was present at the birth and presumably on leave from the Kasungu Mission in Nyasaland. Her British General Medical Council registration for 1907 gives his address as being Kasungu, Ngara, British Central Africa (source: Scotlands People and British Medical Registers). She died later on 17 January 1916 at the Royal Scottish Nursing Home in Edinburgh from acute peritonitis.
* James Scott Prentice - born in 1908 at Kasungu, Nyasaland
* Robert Scott Prentice - born on 30 July 1910 at Bridge of Allan,
Stirlingshire
Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling, gd, Siorrachd Sruighlea) is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration countyRegisters of Scotland. Publications, leaflets, Land Register Counties. of Scotland. Its county town is Stirli ...
, Scotland. His birth was registered and witnessed by a nurse which probably means that George was not in Scotland but had remained in Nyasaland.
References
Sources
*Politics and Christianity in Malawi, 1875-1940: The Impact of the Livingstonia Mission in the Northern Province by ''John McCracken''; published by ''African Books Collective'' (2008)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prentice, George
1871 births
1948 deaths
People from Lanarkshire
Scottish Presbyterian missionaries
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
19th-century Scottish medical doctors
20th-century Scottish medical doctors