Henry Martyn, translator of the Scriptures, and missionary in
India and Persia, had links with our diocese. Simon Kershaw
looks at his life. Henry Martyn lived only 31 years, but in that
short time his inspiring life and scholarship laid down the
foundations for future mission work and missionary vocations. He
was born in 1781 in Truro. At 16 he came to Cambridge to read
mathematics. He graduated as the Senior Wrangler - the top of
the First Class in maths - and was elected a Fellow of St John’s
College. But, inspired by the preaching of Charles Simeon, he
was ordained, and became an assistant to Simeon at Holy Trinity
Church, Cambridge. He also had charge of the parish of Lolworth.
However, he felt called to mission work and when he was 24 he
accepted a position as chaplain to the British community in
Bengal. The young Church Missionary Society did not have
sufficient funds to support him, but it was not Martyn’s
intention to minister only to the British. Instead, he set about
learning to speak the local lan