Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 35 on 15/11/2007.

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Doctor Livingstone, I presume?

In the latest of our series on famous Scots, we study the life of Scotland’s most famous explorer

David Livingstone was born in Blantyre Mill village on 19 March 1813. The son of a shopkeeper, the young Livingstone lived with his parents, two brothers and two sisters in a one-roomed house beside the cotton mill.

Like the other village children, he began working in the mills at the age of 10 as a piecer, which meant that he was responsible for ensuring that the cotton threads in the machinery didn’t snap. His working day started at six in the morning and did not finish until eight at night, promptly followed by two hours of school.

During the course of his studies he read an appeal on behalf of the Chinese Missions which captured his imagination and made him determined to go to China to work as a missionary.

At 23 he studied medicine and theology at Anderson College in Glasgow, studying in winter and working at the mill during summer, and was eventually accepted as a missionary doctor by the London Missionary Society. However, the Opium War was going on in China at this time, and instead Livingstone was persuaded to go to Africa.

He set sail in 1840 and went to Kuruman in the Kalahari to learn the workings of a mission station. There he met his future wife Mary Moffat, the daughter of another missionary; they were married in 1845 and had four children. His wife shared his zeal to deliver the Christian message and together they began to explore uncharted areas of Africa. It was a hardlife, and during one such expedition their youngest child died, and Livingstone promptl.....

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By Sally Toms

Section : Scottish Legends

Page number : 25