Oliver Fellows Tomkins, who was born in Great Yarmouth, was ordained at the United Reformed Church (URC) in Princes Street, Norwich in 1899, and sent out to Papua New Guinea, through the London Missionary Society, to spread the Christian faith.
After he was martyred and eaten by the natives there in 1901, a plaque commemorating the 27-year-old was put up in the Norwich church after a packed-out memorial service was held.
With plans recently approved to convert the URC into a performing arts centre, the great-nephew of Oliver wants to make sure his memory continues to live on.
Stephens Tomkins, an Emeritus Fellow at Homerton College, Cambridge, said: “My great uncle Oliver’s story is most unusual. It had quite an impact on my own father, who was named after him. My father was born of a Christian missionary family in China and became, later in the 20th century, one of the founders of the British Council of Churches and World Council of Churches.
“The impact that those pioneering Christian missions had was fantastic and the Papua New Guinea church considers Oliver Fellows Tomkins as one of its founders.”
“I have asked the buyer of the URC church to please think carefully about any alterations inside the building as it is all part and parcel of that church building’s history, and to keep the plaque where it is as it tells a unique story. We feel that that narrative, if better known, will be valued and attract visitors.”
Oliver Fellows Tomkins was born in March 1873 at Great Yarmouth, the son of a teacher Daniel Tomkins and Catherine Fellows.
Oliver was educated at his father's school in Yarmouth before travelling to Switzerland to finish his education. Returning to Britain, at the age of 17 he moved to Norwich, to take up a position at mustard makers Colman’s, where he spent five years and was a member at the Congregational Church on Princes Street (which became the URC church) in the city. From 1890 to 1896 he was a Sunday School teacher at Trowse Congregational Church in Norwich, as well as being active in the YMCA.
In 1895 he applied to become a missionary and became a student at the East London Missionary Training Institute, at Bromley-by-Bow in London and also attended Livingstone College, named after David Livingstone. The college provided a nine-month course in the elements of medicine for Christian missionaries going to tropical countries.
During holidays and half-terms, he would preach to the fishermen of the North Sea fleet and undertake mission work in English country villages, travelling to each in a caravan and camping at night.
At the end of his training, Oliver was ordained at Princes Street in 1899. He was appointed to work in the Torres Strait in New Guinea, and was selected by the Home Magazine Missionary Band. He sailed for New Guinea on December 8, 1899, with Rev Albert Pearse, celebrating the beginning of a new century at sea before joining the Scottish born missionary James Chalmers.
Chalmers said that Oliver had been "A great help and a great comfort. No son could have treated me more kindly than he did."
Accompanied by Oliver, Chalmers arrived at the Aird River of Goaribari Island on board the mission vessel Niue on April 7, 1901. The last entry in Oliver's diary supplied some account of the first communications with the cannibals of Gulf Province.
"In the afternoon we were having a short service with the crew, when about twenty canoes were seen approaching. They hesitated as they got nearer to us, till we were able to assure them that we meant peace. Gradually one or two of the more daring ones came closer, and then alongside, till at last one ventured on board. Then, in a very few minutes, we were surrounded by canoes, and our vessel was covered with them.
On this, our first visit, we were able to do really nothing more than establish friendly relations with the people. They stayed on board about three hours, examining everything, from the ship's rigging to our shirt buttons. They tried hard to persuade us to come ashore in their canoes, but we preferred to spend the night afloat, and promised we would visit their village in the morning."
The following morning was Easter Sunday.
The missionaries, and twelve native Christians who accompanied them, landed at Risk Point on Goaribari Island and none were seen again.
A later report came from George Le Hunte, Lieutenant-Governor of the colony, who visited the Aird River, and heard the story from a captured prisoner.
Accompanying him was Rev Archibald Ernest Hunt, who wrote: “When they got ashore, the whole party were massacred and their heads cut off. All the bodies were distributed and eaten."
In 'Adventures of Missionary Heroism' by John C Lambert, the full horror is described.
"The first to be killed were the two missionaries, who were believed to have been knocked simultaneously on the head from behind with stone clubs. Both fell senseless at the first blow and their heads were immediately cut off. Their followers were then similarly killed and then beheaded. The heads were distributed as trophies among the murderers. The bodies were cut up and handed to the women to cook."
Oliver died aged 27, James Chalmers died aged 59. The news of Oliver's death did not reach his family for many months. The Congregational Church on Princes Street was packed for a memorial service.
A plaque was placed on the wall of the church and a memorial cross was erected in the cemetery on Kitchener Road in Great Yarmouth.
In 2001 there was a centenary commemoration and a reconciliation between the families of Tomkins and Charmers, and the tribe from Papua New Guinea.
Pictured top is Oliver Fellows Tomkins and the memorial plaque in the URC in Princes Street (Image: Stephen Tomkins) and Oliver Fellows Tomkins, courtesy of London Missionary Society
Also pictured is the memorial cross for Oliver Fellows Tomkins in the cemetery on Kitchener Road in Great Yarmouth. Picture © Chris Thompson.
Article extracts from Wikipedia
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