Davy, William Ludlow

Missionary in Nyasaland (Malawi). He was born in Plymouth, England, where he received his grammar school education. During his boyhood years he was deeply impressed by reading the life and missionary experiences of David Livingstone. He also attended a lecture by John G. Paton, the famous missionary to the South Seas. These two things strongly influenced him to give himself to mission service some years later. At the age of twenty-one he emigrated to Canada, where he studied for three years at Battleford Academy. Shortly after this he married Elsie Annie Little.

In 1920 Davy and his wife traveled to Africa and spent the first four months at Solusi Mission. From there they went to Nyasaland, where Davy was appointed director of the Matandani Mission, a station some seventy miles (112 kilometers) west of the city of Blantyre. At this station they worked together for four years.

In 1924 Mrs. Davy became ill with black-water fever. Because the exceptionally heavy rainy season that year had washed away the bridge over the Shire River, no medical help could reach her, and she died. Alone, Davy conducted his wife’s funeral and the same year, with his three children, returned to the United States.

In 1926 he married Lydia Stickle, and together they went to Africa. After nine months in Bechuanaland, he returned to Nyasaland. For the next five years he was again stationed at Matandani, and afterward he was called to assist at the Malamulo Mission Training School. The first year there he taught in the school, and in 1935 acted as director of the mission. It was at Malamulo that he was ordained to the ministry by H. M. Sparrow.

After his return from furlough in 1936, Davy and his wife were sent to Luwazi, the northernmost SDA mission in Nyasaland, situated some twenty-four miles (thirty-eight kilometers) from Lake Nyasa, where they worked together for almost twenty years. Davy walked for hundreds of miles through the hills, established dozens of outschools, and watched churches grow. When failing health at length forced him to leave Africa, he retired in Modesto, California.

This article is reprinted with permission from the Seventh-Day Adventist Encyclopedia, copyright © by Review and Herald Publishing Association, 55 West Oak Ridge Drive, Hagerstown, Maryland 21740, 800-765-6955.