Richard Absalom MAYNARD

MAYNARD, RICHARD ABSALOM (b. c. 1870; d. 5 Feb 1953). Anglican missionary clergyman.

Maynard went to Kenya in 1894, being the fifth missionary to be sent out by the Victorian CMA which had been formed in 1892. In 1903 he married Miss M A Austin, an Hon CMS missionary. He was made deacon in 1910 and ordained priest in 1912. After missionary service on the Kenya Coast, he and his wife commenced a mission station among the Wataita at Mbale in 1910, where they worked with great acceptance until 1921. They then worked at Dabida, also in the Taita Hills until they retired in 1933. He was archdeacon of Mombasa from 1926 until 1933. Besides having the overall responsibility for pastoral and evangelistic work among the Wataita, Maynard translated the NT and the Prayer Book into Kidabida and compiled a hymn book in that language.—In recording appreciation of their 38 years' missionary service, the CMS stated: 'His work as an evangelist, trainer of native teachers and clergy, and translator of the Scriptures, laid foundations on which much of the present work in Kenya is built'. They retired to England where he had a notable ministry in Eastbourne.

Keith Cole, unpublished ThD MS 'The Growth of the Indigenous Church in Kenya'; Keith Cole, A History of the Church Missionary Society of Australia (1971)

KEITH COLE