George Gurney Nicol

George Gurney Mather Nicol (1856-1888) was a Sierra Leonean clergyman.^[1][2] He was the first African from a British colony to be educated at Cambridge University.^[3]

Life

George Gurney Mather Nicol was born into an elite Sierra Leone Creole family: he was a grandson of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, and the son of the mathematics teacher and clergyman George Croley Nicol.^[3][4] Born on 22 February 1856 at Freetown, he was educated in England, at Monkton Combe School and Sydney College, Bath.^[2] In 1879 he graduated BA from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.^[2] He went on to the Church Missionary Society College, Islington and was ordained in 1883.^[1]

After graduation, Nicol returned to Sierra Leone. Like his father, he taught mathematics at Fourah Bay College, and became a Colonial Chaplain.^[1] Ordained deacon in 1883, he became a curate at Church of the Holy Trinity, Freetown. In 1885 he was ordained priest, and became Pastor of Sherbro Island.^[2]

He died on 15 August 1888.^[1]

References

1. "Nicol, G. Gurney M.". Dictionary of African Christian Biography. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
2. "Nicol, George Gurney Mather (NCL875GG)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
3. Akintola J. G. Wyse (1989). The Krio of Sierra Leone: An Interpretive History. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-85065-031-7.
4. "Nicol, George". Dictionary of African Christian Biography. Retrieved 31 October 2020.