Papers of Augustus Henry Lash

This collection largely comprises the manuscript writings of Augustus Henry Lash as a CMS missionary. These writings include teaching and sermon notes, poems, hymns, stories and articles, and a vocabulary notebook. The collection also includes diaries of deputation work Lash undertook for the CMS during two stays in England, one in 1874-1875 and the other in 1880-1881. These are detailed records of tours around the country with descriptions of the places he visited and the people he met, as well as personal and family information. There is also an incomplete autobiography principally about his work in India but which begins with his work as a Sunday school teacher before becoming a missionary, and some recollections of India by his second wife.

Augustus Henry Lash (1838-1932) of Cork was educated in a Naval School. He was accepted as a Church Missionary Society missionary in 1866. He was Principal of Sarah Tucker Female Training Institution, Palamcottah, South India from 1866 until 1883 and under his charge, the Institution became an important centre of influence, training many native Christian schoolmistresses and having a large system of Branch Schools in different towns and villages in connection with it. He retired from the CMS in 1883 and became the Organising Secretary for the India Female Normal School Society until 1890. He rejoined the CMS in 1890 and started the Buchanan Institution on the lines of the Sarah Tucker Institution at Pallam, Travancore Mission until 1893 when he transferred to Ootacamund as Superintendent of the Nilgiri and Wynaad Tamil mission. He retired in 1909. He married twice: in 1864 to Alicia Elizabeth de Clare Quinlan, who died in 1892; and Emma Gehrich who was in service with the CEZMS at Palamcottah, 1877-1893.

Reference: Register of missionaries (clerical, lay & female) and native clergy from 1804 to 1904 ( Church Missionary Society, 1905 ). ; and unpublished additions to this register in the CMS archives

Arranged into one series (and sub-series): Family Papers

Open. Access to all registered researchers.

This collection was presented to the CMS in June 1976; transferred on permanent loan to the Special Collections Department by the CMS in the 1980s.

Please see online catalogu e for further information.

Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the University Archivist, Special Collections. Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. Special Collections will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

Further deposits are not expected.

Another personal diary of Augustus Lash, which includes an account of his journey to Madras, South India, 1866-1867, can be found in the CMS Unofficial Papers (GB 150 CMS/ACC42). The Special Collections Department also holds the Church Missionary Society Archive, the official archive of the society (GB 150 CMS), which includes papers relating to Lash's service as a CMS missionary.

The University of Birmingham, Special Collections Department and the Orchard Learning Resources Centre hold a rich collection of archives relating to missions, charities and other religious and ecclesiastical organisations and individuals.