Henry Watson Fox

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Henry Watson Fox (1817–1848) was a Church of England missionary to the Telugu people in south India. Born at Westoe, he was the son of rope maker George Townshend Fox and Ann Stote Crofton; his elder brother was William Fox, who would become Prime Minister of New Zealand. He studied at Durham grammar school, Rugby, and Wadham College, Oxford, graduating with a BA in 1839. Inspired by evangelical leaders, he decided to become a missionary after discussions with John Tucker.

Fox was ordained a deacon in 1840 and, in 1841, joined the Church Missionary Society as a missionary to the Telugu people in the Madras Presidency. He arrived in Madras in 1841 with his wife Elizabeth and Rev. Robert Turlington Noble, and soon preached in Masulipatam and the surrounding districts, learning Telugu. Poor health kept him largely in the Nilgiri hills from 1843 to 1844; his wife Elizabeth fell ill and died near Madras in 1845. They had children; one son, Johnny, was ill and died after his mother. Fox returned to England briefly in 1846, then went back to India for about a year before his health declined again. In 1848 he returned to England and became assistant secretary to the CMS. He died on 14 October 1848 at his mother’s house in Durham, after a severe bout of dysentery.

After his death, funds were raised to endow the Rugby-Fox mastership at the Masulipatam school (Noble College) and to sponsor an annual Rugby School sermon to support it. He wrote Chapters on Missions in South India (1846) and, in 1848, a hymn, “I hear a thousand voices singing.” A memoir by his brother appeared in 1850. His letters and journals show his strong commitment to missionary work.