Skip to content ↓

View entry

Back to search results

Name: WILSON, Charles Thomas (Rev.)

Birth Date: 14 Oct 1851 Adelaide, S. Australia

Death Date: 10 Mar 1917 Hatch Beauchamp, Somerset

First Date: 1876

Last Date: 1879

Profession: Missionary. In the same party as Shergold Smith, and they were the first group of CMS Missionaries to arrive at Rubaga, then the capital of Uganda. They had started from Zanzibar in 1876

Area: Uganda

Married: In Ventnor 7 Apr 1881 Jessie Elizabeth Clissold b. 19 Oct 1861 Balham, d. 12 Mar 1937 Southsea

Children: Cyril Charles Clissold (21 May 1884 Jerusalem-1971); Dorothy Jessie (26 Feb 1886 Jerusalem-1944)

Author: 'Uganda and the Egyptian Soudan' with R.W. Felkin

Book Reference: Gillett, Roome, Tucker, UJ, CMS, EAHB 1904

School: St Mary Hall, Oxford

General Information:

Uganda Journal - Vol. 2 No. 2 - Further Memories of Uganda by Sir Albert Cook - Harry Johnston was a very accurate writer, but he makes one slip in this matter, for in Vol. 1 of his 'Uganda Protectorate', published in 1902, he states - "Owing to the dangerous storms and rough seas which prevail on the open water ….. the lake has never yet been deliberately crossed over its open waters from north to south, or east to west." That feat had, however, been performed 25 years previously for on June 25th, 1877, the Rev. C.T. Wilson and Lieut. Shergold Smith, members of the first CMS party of missionaries left Kegeyi, near Mwanza, and shaping a course across the centre of the lake, for the naval lieutenant was an experienced navigator, cast anchor in Murchison Bay on the extreme north on the evening of the 26th June, 35 hours after embarking, a record unbeaten, I believe, up to the present time. They had a favourable breeze behind them the whole way. The exploit was the more remarkable for at a small island en route when they essayed to land, they had a perilous adventure. The natives on the shore threw stones and shot poisoned arrows. A stone struck Shergold Smith, shattering the glass of his blue spectacles into his best eye, and destroyed the sight of it. Wilson's shoulder was pierced by a poisoned arrow, and Smith, blinded as he was, with the blood streaming down his face, sucked the wound, and doubtless saved his comrade's life. It is sad to relate that six months later Shergold Smith and Mr O'Neill were massacred with their whole party on the island of Ukerewe.
Uganda Journal - Vol. 21, No. 1 - Kibuka by E.B. Haddon - Rev C.T. Wilson, who was in Uganda 1877-79 ….
Uganda Journal - Vol 20 (1956), 210 - The Wilsons of early Uganda by H.B. Thomas - The Rev C.T. Wilson, MA (Oxon) was born in Australia. He was a Manchester curate when he joined the first CMS party for Uganda in 1876. He and Shergold Smith were the first missionaries to land in Buganda (28 June 1877), and for some time he was the only European in the country. He returned to Europe with Dr. Felkin by way of the Sudan (June 1879 to March 1880), and was the joint author of Wilson and Felkin, 'Uganda and the Egyptian Sudan', 1882. He did not return to Uganda but worked for some years under the CMS in Palestine. He died at Clifton, 10 March 1917 aged 65.
CMS 1876 - Age 24. Of Pavenham Vicarage, Bedfordshire. b. at Adelaide, South Australia. St Mary Hall, Oxford. 1874 BA (2nd class Nat. Sc.); 1880 MA; 1875, Feb 21 Deacon and 1876, March 12 Priest by Bishop of Manchester. 1875-76 Curate of St. James's Collyhurst. 1876, appointed to Eastern Equatorial Africa - Nyanza - Mission; May 25, sailed for Zanzibar; 1877, June 30, reached Uganda with George Shergold Smith; was alone in the capital till joined by Mackay, Dec 1878; 1879, June left via the Nile; 1880 April, arrived in England and subsequently resigned on account of health. Service 4 years. 1880-81 Curate of Bengeo, Herts. 1881 Curate and 1882-83 Incumbent of Bishop's Sutton, Hants 1881 FRGS; 1882 Hon. Member Geog. Soc. of Cairo. 1883 offered again for service, and left Oct 28 for Palestine Mission ………. Married 1881, April 7, Jessie Elizabeth Clissold. Brother of T.C. Wilson and D.M. Wilson both CMS Missionaries.
H. Gresford Jones, Uganda in Transformation, 1926 We look back to-day across half a century to this arrival of the two white men at the old king's stockade in the middle of Africa. Eight had started from Zanzibar :  Lieut. George Shergold Smith, late of the Royal Navy ; Alexander Mackay, a Scots engineer ; the Rev. C. T. Wilson, a Manchester curate; T.  O'Neill,  an architect ;  John Smith, a doctor in the Edinburgh Medical Mission; G.  J.  Clark,  another  engineer ;   W.  M. Robertson, an artisan ;  and James Robertson, a builder.   Except for the one clergyman this was veritably " a laymen's mission." It was a venture of no ordinary kind.  The long southern route, through what is now Tanganyika  Territory,  laid a ruinous toll upon the little company. James Robertson died.   Mackay, Clark, and W. M. Robertson were invalided back.   Only four reached the great Lake at Kagei, and here, on 11 May, 1877, John Smith. the only doctor of the party, also died.   O'Neill, the architect, was left behind at the south of the lake with the heavy stuff.   The naval officer and the clergyman arrived alone at their destination.
 

Back to search results