Papers of Rev A. R. Down

Papers, diaries, photographs, sketches and sound recordings by Rev A. R. Down, missionary in Madagascar with the London Missionary Society in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Also includes a small collection of original watercolour paintings by Malagasy artists.

Arthur Robert Down was born on 4 October 1907 at Exeter. He trained at Western College. He was ordained on 13 July 1936 at Southernhay, Exeter. He married Kathleen Estelle Ainsworth on 6 May 1932. He was appointed as a missionary to Madagascar with the London Missionary Society and sailed 9 April 1937. During the war Madagascar was ruled by Vichy France and was invaded and taken over by the British and South Africans. Rev Down became involved and became an army chaplain, resigning from the mission in 1942. As an army chaplain he moved to East Africa, and then, with an East African regiment, to Burma where he was involved in the final stages of the Burma campaign. He spent some time in India before returning to England. He then had a further posting with the army in Wiltshire before retuning to the church and becomimg a minister in Moreton-in-the-Marsh in 1947. He moved to Salisbury in 1950 and to London in the late 1950s where he was a minister in Earlsfield, Wandsworth. In London he was involved in teaching at a higher educational college, and taught members of the Armed Forces.

Original cassette tapes are restricted. Apply to CWM Archivist in the first instance re access to digital copies of these sound recordings.

Restrictions Apply

Material donated to SOAS Library in December 2015 by Mr Brian Wates, great-nephew of Rev A. R. Down.

Copyright held by SOAS, University of London