West, Benjamin F.

1858 - 1933
Pioneer missionary and founder of Jean Hamilton Memorial Training School
Methodist
Malaya and Singapore

Benjamin Franklin West was born on April 22, 1858, to Thomas J. West and Mary Louise Lee[1] at Crawfordsville, Indiana, in the United States. Although his family was poor, West, a resourceful boy, managed to attend medical school at Miami Medical College in Cincinnati after completing his education at Wabash College. Upon graduation on March 1, 1881, he returned to Crawfordsville to start medical practice. In January 1882, he relocated his practice to Angus, Iowa where it flourished.[2]

He married Mary Graham on September 12, 1881 but she died four years later, leaving behind two sons, Wilson and Harold. The following year, West married Mary’s sister, Leticia Graham. Wilson later succumbed to burns sustained in a fire.[3]

In 1887, West heard James M. Thoburn (who was elected the first missionary bishop for India and Malaya in 1888) speak at a Methodist Conference about opportunities for mission work in Malaya. At that time, mission work was in its infancy and missionaries had to struggle with financial problems and other challenges. West, however, responded and was ordained as a missionary. In January 1888, he set sail with his young wife and two children for Singapore[4] They went on to have seven children altogether, born in the various countries where they served. 

On arrival in Singapore, West became a teacher at the Anglo-Chinese School, overseeing 40 boys in a Standard Four class. After 18 months, he requested to treat the sick as he felt his medical skills were going to waste.[5] Thereafter, he taught in the mornings and worked as a medical practitioner treating the poor in Chinatown in the afternoons. While he treated these patients in his dispensary, there were two Chinese catechists who preached and taught the waiting crowd. Later on, William T. Knesett, a medical assistant from the British Navy, joined him after getting a discharge from naval service. Knesett later qualified as a doctor himself.[6]

West’s appointment in April 1889 as head of the Methodist mission work among the Chinese marked the beginning of earnest evangelistic work among the locals[7] He rented a shophouse on Upper Nanking Street as his base for integrated educational, religious and medical services, targeting the Chinese immigrants in the vicinity. In August 1889, he started two Sunday services, preaching in Malay with translation into Hokkien for 30 people.[8] This was the beginning of the Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church, the first Methodist Chinese-speaking church in Singapore. Today, it is a vibrant church with services in Mandarin, Hokkien and English.  

To improve his command of the Chinese language, in 1890, West spent a year studying in Amoy, China while his able assistant, Knesett, held the fort. As a result, West became proficient in speaking the Chinese dialects of Hokkien, Hakka and Cantonese. He also spoke and taught in the local Tamil and Malay languages. His understanding of the diverse indigenous cultures and local languages helped him immensely in his cross-cultural mission work which was well-received[9]

In 1895, West was transferred to Penang as superintendent (Malayan Conference) of the new district, which covered the whole Malay Peninsula. Earlier, in 1892, he had helped to set up the Penang Anglo-Chinese School (known today as Methodist Girls’ School) at Northam Road.[10] He travelled extensively to visit the principal stations of his district, including Taiping, Ipoh, Teluk Anson, Kuala Lumpur and Malacca. To navigate these places, he had to use all kinds of transportation including boat, two-wheeled rickshaw, pony cart and train.[11]

Meanwhile, Mrs West supported the work by visiting the women in their homes and taking her children with her. [12]

From the outset, West recognised that the evangelisation of Malaya would rely more on the local people rather than a handful of foreign missionaries. As such, he focussed on training and recruiting local Bible men and women for the ministry. This entailed the setting-up of  a Normal Training School and a Theological Training School for both school teachers and preachers. However, suitable candidates with minimum education qualifications were few. In addition, the frequent relocation of West from Penang to Malacca and Singapore disrupted the training. His first four students were labourers without money or education.[13] By 1900, one was good enough to take charge of the Chinese work in Kuala Lumpur. 

In 1901, West took a year’s furlough in the US and on his return a year later, was appointed the presiding elder of the Malaya Conference.[14] The Theological Training School moved with him to Singapore, operating from a rented house in Bencoolen Street. It was re-named Jean Hamilton Memorial Training School (JHTS) when it moved into another property located at No. 7 Mt Sophia. In 1911, it was finally re-located to 367, Serangoon Road, co-existing with the Anglo-Tamil School. Its name would change to Trinity Theological College in 1954 after it became a collaborative effort of the Methodist, Anglican and Presbyterian churches.[15]

As his district in Singapore was smaller, West was able to make exploratory trips to Borneo, Java and Sumatra. He made bi-annual trips to Sibu for two consecutive years to encourage the fledgling Methodist Episcopal Mission work among the Foochows under Reverend Wong Nai Siong.[16] West was also active with the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) of Singapore.[17]

In 1906, after serving in Malaya for 19 years, West and his family returned to the US due to his wife’s ill-health and also his children’s education.[18]They settled in the university district of Seattle in Washington state. To support the family, West and his daughter Ruth started a drug store. After a few years of study, he was qualified to restart his medical practice which soon flourished. He was well-known for providing free treatment to the poor from the Children’s Home Finding Society. In his free time, he taught Bible classes at the University Church and preached at the Deaconess Settlement. His frequent lectures on mission work captivated his audiences as he illustrated his talks with hundreds of lantern slides.[19]

West passed away on July 2, 1933 at the age of 76 in Seattle. He was survived by his wife, four daughters and two sons. 

On hearing of West’s demise, his co-worker Reverend William Oldham wrote: “For nineteen years he served on the Mission field and then the education of his family forced him home; but among the names to be ever enshrined in the annals of the Malaysia Conference, I trust there will never be forgotten the name of Benjamin Franklin West, M.D., a man of God, lover of children, and a master of the repartee and always the dispenser of laughter and merry moods.”[20]

 

 

Notes

  1. ^ “Biographical and Historical Record of Greene and Carroll Counties, Iowa”, Iowa Biographies Project (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1887), accessed February 9, 2021, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~iabiog/greene/gc1887/gc1887-w.htm
  2. ^ Iowa Biographies Project. 
  3. ^ Iowa Biographies Project. 
  4. ^ W.F. Oldham, “Benjamin Franklin West, King County Wa Gen Web, October 19, 1933, accessed February 9, 2021, http://www.wagenweb.org/king/featuredobit/West.htm
  5. ^ Nathalie T. Means, Malaysia Mosaic: A Story of  Fifty Years of Methodism (Singapore: The Methodist Book Room, 1935), 39. 
  6. ^ T.R. Doraisamy, Heralds of the Lord: Personalities in Methodism in Singapore and Malaysia (Singapore: The Methodist Book Room. 1988), 9. 
  7. ^  Doraisamy, Heralds, 9. 
  8. ^ Earnest Lau, From Mission to Church: The Evolution of the Methodist Church in Singapore and Malaysia, 1885–1976 (Singapore: Genesis Books, 2008), 17.
  9. ^  “Our Heritage”, Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church website, accessed February 9, 2021, http://www.tacmc.org.sg/about-us/our-heritage.aspx
  10. ^ Doraisamy, Heralds, 9.
  11. ^ Doraisamy, Heralds, 14-15. 
  12. ^ “Rev Dr Benjamin Franklin West - Founder of Methodist Girls' School”, accessed August 17, 2021, http://teochiewkia2010.blogspot.com/2010/08/dr-benjamin-franklin-west.html.
  13. ^  Lau, From Mission to Church, 71-72. 
  14. ^  “The Methodist Conference”, Eastern Daily Mail and Straits Morning Advertiser, January 31, 1906, 3, accessed February 9, 2021, https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/easterndaily19060131-1.2.40  
  15. ^ Lau, From Mission to Church, 84. 
  16. ^ Doraisamy, Heralds, 33. 
  17. ^ Oldham, “Benjamin Franklin West
  18. ^ Oldham, “Benjamin Franklin West
  19. ^ Oldham, “Benjamin Franklin West
  20. ^ Oldham, “Benjamin Franklin West

Tai Kim Teng

The writer, an orthopaedic surgeon and the former executive director of OMF in Malaysia, is the executive director of DCBAsia.

 

Bibliography

Doraisamy, T.R. Heralds of the Lord: Personalities in Methodism in Singapore and Malaysia. Singapore: The Methodist Book Room, 1988.

“Biographical and Historical Record of Greene and Carroll Counties, Iowa”. Iowa Biographies Project. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1887. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~iabiog/greene/gc1887/gc1887-w.htm.

Lau,  Earnest. From Mission to Church: The Evolution of the Methodist Church in Singapore and Malaysia, 1885–1976. Singapore: Genesis Books, 2008.

Means, Nathalie T. Malaysia Mosaic: A Story of  Fifty Years of Methodism. Singapore: The Methodist Book Room, 1935.

Oldham, W.F. “Benjamin Franklin West, King County Wa Gen Web, October 19, 1933. http://www.wagenweb.org/king/featuredobit/West.htm.

 “Our Heritage”. Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church website. http://www.tacmc.org.sg/about-us/our-heritage.aspx.

“The Methodist Conference”. Eastern Daily Mail and Straits Morning Advertiser, January 31, 1906, 3. https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/easterndaily19060131-1.2.40