| Administrative History | Alexander Caseby was inspired to become a missionary at the age of 11, by Rev. Thomas Crichton, minister of Logie and Gauldry, whom he heard speak passionately of Robert Laws' Livingstonia Mission in 1909. He enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery in 1915, but after the war resumed his education, studying courses in agriculture, horticulture, forestry and Bible studies, before he was ordained, in 1922, as a minister of the United Free Church of Scotland, and shortly afterwards accepted by Laws to work at Livingstonia Mission in Malawi. In 1929 he suffered from malarial fever, which rendered him seriously ill for several years, with recurrent illness throughout the rest of his life. Despite his illness, he returned to work after 3 years, resuming his career in a busy parish in Scotland where he remained until retirement. |
| Custodial History | The records were acquired by the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World, under the directorship of Professor Andrew Walls, Department of Divinity, University of Aberdeen. They were transferred to Special Libraries and Archives when the Centre moved to Edinburgh c 1987, together with evidence heard at the World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh, 1910 (MS 3291), and the papers of Robert Laws, missionary (MS 3290). |
| Description | Alexander Caseby's memoirs, written at the age of 76, recalling his childhood and early calling as a missionary, and describing in detail, the work of the Livingstonia Mission, Malawi, 1908 - 1929. Drafts of articles based on experiences at Livingstonia, and talks by his daughter, Margaret Hansford, based on his papers and those of Robert and Amelia Laws (see MS 3290). |
| Copyright | Subject to the condition of the original, copies may be supplied for private research use only on receipt of a signed undertaking to comply with current copyright legislation. Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the University Archivist and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. Where possible, assistance will be given in identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material. |