London Missionary Society

The London Missionary Society (LMS) was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational missions in Oceania, Africa, and the Americas, although there were also Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, and various other Protestants involved. The Society sent missionaries all over the world, notably to India, China, Australia, Madagascar and Africa. Famous LMS missionaries included:Robert Morrison (1782–1834) who went to China in 1807; John Smith (1790–1824) was a LMS missionary whose experiences in the West Indies, beginning in 1817, attracted the attention of the anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce. As a result of his actions in the Demerara rebellion of 1823, trial by court martial and subsequent death in 1824, whilst under imprisonment, Smith became known as the "Demerara Martyr"; John Williams served in the Pacific Ocean from 1821 until he was killed and eaten by cannibals on the island of Erromango in the New Hebrides in 1839; David Livingstone (1813–1873), the medical missionary and explorer, served with the LMS from 1841 until 1857 in Southern Africa; and Eric Liddell, (1902–1945) 1924 Olympic gold medalist in the 400 metres race, served as an LMS missionary to China.