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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = [[The Reverend]]
| name = William Pettigrew
| image = Rev-willian-pettigrew guess 1902 (cropped).jpg
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1869|01|05|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Edinburgh]], Scotland
| death_date = {{Death date|1943|04|10|df=y}}
| death_place = United Kingdom
| alma_mater =
| occupation = Christian missionary
| spouse = {{plainlist|
* Alice Goreham Pettigrew (m.1896 d.1934)
* Ethel A. Masales (m.1934 d.1980)
}}
| children = {{plainlist|
* Jessie Melbourn (b. 1897)
* Douglas Colin (b. 1898)
* Edward William (b. 1902)
* Margaret Alice (b. 1905)}}
}}
'''William Pettigrew''' (5 January 1869 – 19 January 1943) was a British Christian missionary who went to India in 1890, eventually brought western education in [[Manipur]] and introducing Jesus Christ to the [[Tangkhul Naga people|Tangkhul Naga]] tribe, inhabiting [[Ukhrul district]] and he became the main catalyst for the surge in current Christian population in Manipur.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://morungexpress.com/colonialism-reverend-william-pettigrew-1869-1943-coming-christianity-western-education-manipur/|title=Colonialism, Reverend William Pettigrew (1869-1943), and the Coming of Christianity and Western Education to Manipur|date=2017-01-10|newspaper=[[The Morung Express]]|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181016193323/https://morungexpress.com/colonialism-reverend-william-pettigrew-1869-1943-coming-christianity-western-education-manipur|archive-date=2018-10-16|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Personal life==

William Pettigrew was born at Edinburgh on 5 January 1869.<ref name="easternmirrornagaland.com"/> After his mother died at childbirth of his younger brother, his father who worked as captain in an Irish ship. remarried, and added two more brothers and one sister to the family. The Pettigrew siblings were brought up in strict [[Anglicanism]], where the children attended Bible Camp every week. During one of such visits, Pettigrew heard about the first American missionary [[Adoniram Judson]] working as a Christian missionary in Burma (now Myanmar). Inspired by this story, Pettigrew was convinced that he would become a missionary and spread Christianity in India. To fulfil this desire, he underwent aboriginal training after completing high school at the [[Robert Arthington#Arthington Aborigines Mission|Arthington Aborigines Mission]] training centre. He was certified to go to India as a Christian missionary on 28 November 1890, and arrived in India at Calcutta with three other missionaries and a doctor during the same year.<ref name="easternmirrornagaland.com">{{cite web |date=11 January 2017 |title=Colonialism, Reverend William Pettigrew (1869-1943), and the Coming of Christianity and Western Education to Manipur |url=http://www.easternmirrornagaland.com/colonialism-reverend-william-pettigrew-1869-1943-and-the-coming-of-christianity-and-western-education-to-manipur/ |publisher=Eastern Mirror}}</ref> Pettigrew later married his high school sweetheart Alice Goreham on 13 November 1896, at Calcutta, and they lived in India till 1933 before they departed for England.<ref name="easternmirrornagaland.com"/>

==Missionary work in India==
[[File:Rev-willian-pettigrew-family guess 1902.jpg|left|thumb|Pettigrew's family]]
From his arrival till 1894, Pettigrew worked with the Arthington Aborigines Missionary group, but from 1894, he started to work with the [[American Baptist Foreign Mission Society]] (ABFMS), after he converted from the Anglican to Baptist faith in India.<ref name="easternmirrornagaland.com" />

When he finally started working in [[Manipur (princely state)|Manipur]], Pettigrew worked as a Baptist missionary. He was given approval by the [[Political Resident|political agent]] of Manipur, which was a princely state under the British Raj, to work as Christian missionary at [[Ukhrul district|Ukhrul]], one of the hill regions of Manipur. The order from the political agent for Pettigrew to work among the head-hunting [[Tangkhul Naga people|Tangkhul Naga]] tribe living at Ukhrul came in such manner:
"Confined and restricted to one section of the country, the North-East area among the Tangkhul Nagas, Headhunters of the past and still practised in the outlying and frontier villages, the writer and his wife at their own risk according to Government order from 1896 to 1918 made the largest and most important village of the tribe Ukhrul, their headquarters".<ref name="easternmirrornagaland.com" />
Pettigrew started his work as an educationist at the Ukhrul Headquarter, Hunphun, on 19 February 1897, when 20 students enrolled to learn rudimentary western education. He also learned the [[Tangkhul language]] from the Hunphun Chief Raihao Awungshi Shimray, which was followed by writing Tangkhul primers, arithmetic, and [[catechism]] in Roman script, and finally translating the English Bible into the [[Tangkhul language]]. The New Testament was published in the language in 1926.<ref>Kharingpam, A.C (2020). [https://arek.co.in/tag/william-pettigrew/|access-date=2021-02-22 Revisiting Pettigrew’s Education: The Ushering of the Colonial Ideology Through Schools and Textbooks Amongst the Tangkhul Nagas (1896 -1938).] Contemporary Literary Review of India, 7 (3), 1-18.</ref> From Ukhrul Headquarter, Hunphun, education and schools swiftly spread to the surrounding villages including Humbum (Hungpung), Talla (Talloi), Faling (Halang), Paoyi (Peh), Chingjui (Chingjaroi), Phadang (Phalee), Somdal, Horton, Longpi (Nungbi), Khangkhui, and Nambisha. These villages with their schools were structured under a 'single teacher school' system.<ref name="easternmirrornagaland.com" /> By 1897, the Manipur State Government also started to award the students with stipend scholarship of 3 Rupees, in order to encourage them into education.

Imparting western education was followed by converting 12 Tangkhuls from their primal religion of nature-worshiping to Christianity on 29 September 1901. This day is regarded as the day, [[Phungyo Baptist Church]], the first church of Manipur, was born in the State. Thereafter, Christianity grew at a rapid rate, leading to the entire conversion of the Tangkhul Nagas into Christianity. Pettigrew returned to the United Kingdom in 1933, and lived out the rest of his live in England before his death in 1943.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

==Other works and contributions==
For his contribution towards spreading Western education and his service in the rural areas, the Imperial British India awarded him with the honour of [[Kaisar-I-Hind Medal]]. From 1917-1919, Pettigrew also enlisted 2,000 Manipur men into the [[Indian Labour Corps|Tangkhul Naga Labour Corps]] for service on the [[Western Front (First World War)|Western Front]], serving as a captain in the corps. While working at Hunphun, Pettigrew was a member of the Honorary British Foreign Bible Society, the Asiatic Linguistic Society and the Manipur State Educational Standing Committee.<ref name="easternmirrornagaland.com"/>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pettigrew, William}}
[[Category:Scottish Christian missionaries]]
[[Category:Clergy from Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Scottish educators]]
[[Category:Scottish expatriates in India]]
[[Category:Baptist missionaries in India]]
[[Category:British missionaries in India]]
[[Category:1869 births]]
[[Category:1943 deaths]]
[[Category:Place of death missing]]

William Pettigrew (missionary) - Revision history

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