Page 128 - Bulletin 20 2016

125

THE BIBLE INSTITUTE OF SOUTH AFRICA
AND THE WORK OF THE REVEREND THOMAS EDWARD MARSH, 1853 - 1935

Mike Walker

The formative years

Thomas Edward Marsh (1853 - 1935) was born in Cape Town on 8 December 1853 and was

the only child of William and Frances Marsh, who were devoted Methodist Christians. (Fig.
3.1.) They had immigrated to the Cape in 1852. Here William set up a highly successful

hardware business which stood at the corner of Strand and Burg Streets, Cape Town.

Thomas Edward was always known by his second name, Edward, after his father’s eldest
brother. In 1871 he matriculated at the S. A. College in Orange Street, Cape Town, and for

the next seven years (1872 - 1878) worked in his father’s hardware shop to help him cope
with the increased workload, much of which had resulted from the diamond diggings in

Kimberley. During the years he worked for his father he became fascinated when reading the
travels and accounts of David Livingstone and others in their missionary exploits. This may

well have influenced his decision to answer The Call and turn to missionary work. Before he

left his father’s business he became a Sunday-school teacher, a preliminary to his wish of
becoming a missionary and spreading the Word of God to those who were not aware of the

Gospel and Christ’s teachings.

In 1879 he took the step he always dreamed of and offered himself to the British Conference

of the Methodist Church in England for missionary work in any part of the world they so

wished him to work. That year, aged twenty-six, he left Cape Town to go to the Richmond
Methodist College in London to train for missionary work. After he had completed his

training in 1884 he was sent back to South Africa by the British Conference to commence his
life’s work at Cathcart, a small town in the Eastern Cape where, on his arrival, there was no

Methodist commitment or involvement.

This was true pioneering work and he accepted the challenge with great enthusiasm. Later he