Basil Joseph Mathews


Basil Joseph Mathews was an English historian, biographer, and writer on the ecumenical movement.
In his early life, Mathews was a librarian, a journalist, and Editorial Secretary of the London Missionary Society. During the First World War he worked for the Ministry of Information.

Early life

Mathews was born at Oxford in 1879, the eldest son of Angelo Alfred Hankins Mathews, an insurance broker, and his wife, Emma Colegrove.
After leaving the City of Oxford High School for Boys, he worked at the Bodleian Library and the Oxford City Library, then was employed by A. M. Fairbairn, Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, as a secretary. He then matriculated at the university and in 1904 graduated Bachelor of Arts in modern history.

Career

After the university, Mathews was a journalist for the Christian World. Soon after reporting from the World Missionary Conference of 1910, he became Editorial Secretary of the London Missionary Society. In 1913, he published his first book, an illustrated biography of David Livingstone, the Victorian missionary. From 1917 to 1918, during the First World War, he worked for the Ministry of Information.
As well as works on the history of religion, including a life of Jesus, Mathews published biographies of Booker T. Washington and John Mott. He also wrote the hymn Far round the world thy children sing their song.

Private life

In 1911, Mathews was living in Reigate, Surrey, with his first wife, Harriett Anne Passmore, a farmer’s daughter, and his mother-in-law.
Mathews’s father died at Boars Hill, near Oxford, in 1928, leaving his mother widowed. She lived until 1948, when she was aged ninety.
Mathews’s first wife died in 1939. In the spring of 1940, in Kensington, he married secondly Winifred Grace Wilson. He spent his final years at Triangle Cottage, Boars Hill, and died at the Warneford Hospital, Oxford, in 1951, leaving a widow, Winifred, and an estate valued for probate at £3,706.

Honours

  • Doctor of Law, University of British Columbia

    Major publications

  • Livingstone, the Pathfinder, illustrated by Ernest Prater
  • John Williams, the shipbuilder, illustrated by Ernest Prater
  • The Ships of Peace
  • The Argonauts of Faith; the adventures of the "Mayflower" Pilgrims
  • The Clash of Colour: a study in the problem of race
  • Young Islam on Trek: A Study in the Clash of Civilizations
  • The Clash of World Forces: a Study in Nationalism, Bolshevism and Christianity
  • A Life of Jesus
  • The Jew and the World Ferment
  • John R. Mott, world citizen
  • Shaping the future : a study in world revolution
  • East and West: conflict or cooperation?
  • Booker T. Washington, educator and interracial interpreter
  • Crisis of the West Indian family; a sample study
  • Disciples of All Nations
  • The Riddle of Nearer Asia
  • Essays on Vocation
  • Yarns on African Pioneers to Be Told to Boys
  • Kerala: the Land of Palms
  • Paul the Dauntless, the Course of a Great Adventure
  • Fellowship in Thought and Prayer
  • The Book of Missionary Heroes
  • ''Three Years' War for Peace''