Skip to content ↓

View entry

Back to search results

Name: COLLINS, Thomas Watkin Gerard

image of individualimage of individual

Birth Date: 28 Sep 1910 Hull

Death Date: 23 Sep 1964 Nairobi

First Date: 1934

Profession: Africa Inland Mission missionary

Area: Kapsowar

Married: Ruth Dorothy Barnett b. 30 Mar 1915 Kilombe, d. 26 Jan 1999 Leesburg, Florida (dau. of Albert Edward Austin Barnett)

Children: Malcolm

Book Reference: Grasshoppers, Barnes

School: Peterhouse College, Cambridge

General Information:

Grasshoppers - Scorning hardship and heat he walked from home to home learning the languages (first Swahili and then Pokot), adjusting to a fascinating culture and sharing his Saviour with new friends. The Pokot taught him to cobble up cheap sandals from discarded tyres. In these he could average 15 miles a day, wandering around the scattered dwellings. Back at the newly opened centre of Kapsowar the mission doctor noticed his grazed toes and warned him of infection. Tom's response was a courteous thanks but 'I can trust the Lord to keep me from harm'. To the doctor's suggestion that he buy a pair of boots, he replied that he needed his money to finance the walking trips and could not spare it for such a luxury. The Council shared the doctor's concern for Tom's feet. They not only insisted that he wear boots but also used precious mission funds to buy him a pair. He wore them at mission centres but left them behind when he went on safari. Tom had been a very sickly child - poor vision, a serious heart disorder - and also suffered the loneliness of boarding school and the emotional trauma of separation from his parents. Seven years later at the age of 18 his headmaster reported that 'his health is above the average. He has a pleasant disposition, first-rate common sense and tact ….. Signs of leadership, and marked energy and enterprise.' He had become a crack shot with a rifle but the Army, less impressed by his physique, would not take him and he settled for Peterhouse College, Cambridge ……. The ministry at Kapsowar was still in its infancy. When Tom arrived in 1934 the little hospital was only 4 months old. Tom fitted well into the atmosphere of faith and expectancy which a new work encourages. He was a man of contrasts - a mix of thoughtful submission and tough self-sufficiency. ….. Tom became indifferent, almost contemptuous, to personal hardship. Each fresh difficulty was a challenge to faith and ingenuity. …….. Long treks failed to produce the believers for whom Tom longed. Reluctantly he agreed to establish a small school and a simple home for himself on a dusty river bank called Kinyang, where the Pokot knew they could always find water if they dug deep enough. …… In 1939 when war erupted Tom enlisted but 5 years later, following recurrent bouts of malaria and rheumatic fever, he was medically discharged from the army. During the war he met and married Ruth Barnett who was in charge of the hospital at Kijabe and the daughter of AIM missionaries Albert and Elma Barnett
Barnes - Kijabe Cemetery - Ruth Dorothy Barnett Collins 1915 - 1999 born in Kenya born again in Kenya served the Lord and many people will meet the Lord from Kenya
Barnes - Kijabe Cemetery - Tom Collins 1910 - 1964 A pioneer missionary 1934 - 1964 he lived Christ
Gazette 5 Jan 1965 probate
Ancestry Family Tree has his 3rd forename George, not Gerard

Back to search results