James Hannington
James Hannington (3 September 1847 – 29 October 1885) was an English Anglican missionary and martyr. He was the first Anglican bishop of East Africa.
He was born in Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, England. His family ran Hanningtons department stores. He went to school in Brighton and then studied at St Mary Hall, Oxford. He joined the Church of England in 1867. He was ordained deacon in 1874 and priest in 1875, and he worked at Martinhoe in Devon and then at St George’s in Hurstpierpoint. He was married and later volunteered for missionary work in East Africa in 1882.
In 1882 he joined the Church Missionary Society and left England on 17 May 1882, sailing to Zanzibar with six missionaries. He fell ill with fever and dysentery and had to return to England in 1883.
On 24 June 1884 he was ordained and consecrated bishop by the Archbishop of Canterbury to lead the See of Eastern Equatorial Africa. He returned to Africa in January 1885. In Freretown near Mombasa he worked on missions and planned a shorter highland road to Buganda to avoid the slave routes. Mwanga II, the king of Buganda, grew suspicious as German influence increased on the coast. He ordered Hannington to stop from passing through Busoga, but Hannington refused. He and his party were imprisoned by Basoga chiefs near Lake Victoria on 21 October 1885.
After eight days in captivity, Hannington and his porters were killed on 29 October 1885. His supposed last words were, “Tell Mwanga I have purchased the road to Uganda with my blood,” though this is not certain. He is remembered as one of the first Uganda Martyrs.
His remains were moved to Namirembe Cathedral in Kampala in 1892. His feast day is 29 October, and he is honored in the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church. A memorial church in Hove, England, and the Bishop Hannington Memorial Church in Namirembe commemorates his life.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 19:02 (CET).