ABSTRACT
The life of a missionary in the new century was very different from the experience of those who sailed with Thomas Coke a hundred years before. The life of a mission partner at the end of the twentieth century was vastly different again from what their Edwardian predecessors knew. The number of women missionaries, boosted by the development of the Wesley Deaconess Order (WDO), grew noticeably, due in part to the lack of husbands after the carnage of the Great War. Jessie Kerridge was another long-serving missionary deaconess. Even before Overseas Districts became autonomous churches, many had indigenous Chairmen and the leadership of the church passed out of missionary hands. In rare cases of serious illness or injury evacuation could be arranged rapidly, though a very few fatalities child deaths, road accidents brought missionary service to a tragic end. The issue, sharply focused in the relationship between missionary and indigenous colleague, had much wider implications.
