Mary Slessor

On this day in 1915, the government-run Gazette of Nigeria printed a front-page, black-bordered notice:

"It is with the deepest regret that His Excellency the Governor-General has to announce the death at Itu, on this day, of Miss Mary Mitchell Slessor. For thirty-nine years, with brief and infrequent visits to England, Miss Slessor has laboured among the Eastern Provinces in the south of Nigeria. By her enthusiasm, self-sacrifice, and greatness of character she has earned the devotion of thousands of the natives among whom she worked, and the love and esteem of all Europeans, irrespective of class or creed, with whom she came in contact. She has died, as she herself wished, on the scene of her labours, but her memory will live long in the hearts of her friends, Native and Europeans, in Nigeria."

Thus passed one of Africa’s greatest missionaries.