James Hannington

James Hannington (born September 3, 1847 in Hurstpierpoint , Sussex , England , † October 29, 1885 in Kawirondo , Uganda ) was an Anglican bishop and missionary.

After dropping out of school at 15 and working in his father's business, Hannington decided at 21 to begin a theological training at St. Mary's Hall in Oxford . He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1872 and became a deacon in Trentishoe , Devon in 1873 .

In 1882 he decided to report to the mission in Africa. He embarked for Zanzibar on May 17th, but soon had to return to England because of fever and dysentery . After recovering, he was installed as Bishop of East Equatorial Africa in June 1884 and returned to Africa in January 1885, where he disembarked in Freretown near Mombasa , Kenya . He planned to travel to what is now Uganda on Lake Victoria , but at the border he was stopped, imprisoned and tortured by King Mwanga II of Buganda , the then most powerful empire in Uganda. A week later, he and his companions were murdered by Buganda's soldiers. His last words to his tormentors are recorded: “Tell your king that I opened the way to Uganda through my blood.” Hannington's assassination was the start of a wave of persecution of missionaries, fueled by the local rulers, their influence rapidly decreased in their own country due to the increasing influence of European forces.

The Church of England celebrates October 29th as a public holiday in memory of Hannington and venerates him as a saint and martyr.