Mr. Ernest Charles Askew, the
son of Rev. John and Mrs Sarah Ann Askew was born at Swavesey, Cambridgeshire,
England in 1875 and trained for the Ministry at Regent’s Park College and
University College, London. After completing his studies, his first charge was
at Burton-on-Trent in the county of Staffordshire, England, where he succeeded
his father as pastor. He remained there from 1911 to 1915. In 1913, while
working at Burton-on-Trent, he married Florence Mary Booth.
Askew’s departure from Burton-on-Trent came about when Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) recruited him to serve in India where, from 1915 to 1922, he was principal of a High School at Agra, about 230 kilometres from Delhi. While in India, the Askews welcomed their daughter, Florence Madeline, who was born in 1920.
After spending seven years in India, the Askews returned to England. Over the next two years, Ernest Askew worked with BMS. In 1924, he became minister of the large and influential Baptist Church at Yeovil. Somerset. Yeovil is the historic church whose former member, John Rowe, was the first British Baptist missionary to serve in Jamaica. His pastor, Thomas Price had encouraged him to study at Bristol Baptist College under the leadership of John Ryland. Ryland was the mission-minded minister who had communicated with William Wilberforce to ascertain his views on sending a missionary to Jamaica, even before Moses Baker had requested British Baptists’ assistance in the face of insurmountable obstacles to continuing ministry in Jamaica owing to the legislative changes being introduced. Rowe arrived in Jamaica in 1814, but unfortunately, died after only 28 months.
After serving at Yeovil, Askew went to serve at Abbey Road, Baptist Church in St. Johns Wood, Hampstead, starting in 1931. It was while he was in Hampstead, that BMS recruited him to serve in a tutorial capacity at the Calabar Institution in Kingston, Jamaica. In an interview with a representative of the Hampstead News, before he left Hampstead, Askew said this: “I am looking forward with great eagerness to this challenging piece of work, and am glad that, at the age of 57, I should have been chosen.” He went on to speak of the situation in Jamaica, where, he said, there had been a strong Baptist influence “since a minister of that denomination, the Rev. William Knibb, was largely instrumental in securing the freeing of the slaves. Within ten years, the Baptist Churches there had become self-supporting and had urged the Baptist Missionary Society to spend its money on evangelisation in other places.”
Arriving in Jamaica on January 6, 1945, Askew proceeded to take up his duties as tutor at Calabar. By January 1947, Askew assumed the role of President of Calabar, succeeding Thomas Powell. At the JBU Annual Assembly meeting on February 17, 1947, he addressed the gathering in his capacity as Calabar President.[1]
BMS did not commission Askew to Jamaica to serve as Calabar President and his time in that office was very brief. By 1948, he had returned to England. Both Powell and Askew were keenly aware of, and were deeply committed to, what BMS wanted for Jamaica, but was this what Jamaica Baptists wanted? Askew was a casualty of the way BMS vision for Jamaica was developed.
In an article entitled, “A New Day for Jamaica,” that Askew wrote for the British Baptists’ Missionary Herald,[2] he revealed his support for Powell’s vision for Jamaica’s future and the BMS’ role in it. According to Askew, BMS sent Thomas Powell to Jamaica “as Commissioner with wide powers” [Emphasis added] to assist the Baptist churches in the country. “At least eighteen circuits as well as many unorganised churches were without pastors and many pastors of other churches were altogether inadequately supported.” Askew was convinced that positive change was being seen in the vitality of many churches since he and Powell arrived in the country.
According to Askew, “Speed was necessary and, within four months, a Sustentation and Superannuation Scheme was started. This was financed as to fifty per cent by the B.M.S. and as to the other fifty per cent, by the Jamaican churches. Letters of gratitude from beneficiaries, ministers, active and retired, widows and orphans testify to the good achieved. Moreover, a new hope has come to many churches.” Askew was clear about the prospects for Calabar:
Jamaica
now faces a future which will be very different from the past. It will be a
future of new political responsibilities which can only be properly carried by
men and women of character and enlightenment. It will be a future too of
growing education – a new University is to be started. These and other facts
have demanded a forward-looking policy. Accordingly, a new site of 62½ acres
has been secured for the building of a new High School to accommodate at least 330 boys, a new Theological College,
premises for the training of women workers and perhaps, one day, a Girls’ High
School. Such a site may also well give opportunity for specialised land
training so important in the Island. But, fundamentally, the new site will be
our new Christian opportunity of making a contribution in Christ's name to the
New Jamaica.
Askew had great dreams for Jamaica, but did these comport with the vision of Jamaica Baptists themselves? No evidence has been found to suggest that the BMS representatives were pursuing a vision shared by JBU.
I have been unable to find conclusive evidence to verify the claim that JBU insisted on BMS recalling Askew on account of two issues. Two great Jamaica Baptists, Horace Rusell and Luther Gibbs, offer complementary reasons for Askew’s withdrawal. At the Calabar site at Chetolah Park, Russell states, a portion of the Calabar property was alienated to the Salvation Army, seemingly without JBU’s explicit agreement. Meanwhile, Gibbs notes that Askew and Powell failed to seek the concurrence of JBU leadership before taking action to purchase a parcel of land some 62½ acres (25 hectares) in size at what was then called Industry Pen, a sparsely populated and undeveloped area (now Red Hill Road area),which was deemed necessary and suitable for Calabar’s future development. JBU refused to tolerate another Calabar president who reminded them of Price’s actions during his tenure. The man, who had arrived in Jamaica with Powell whose reputation in Britain and in Jamaican, owing to his work in helping to resolve the Calabar Impasse caused by Ernest Price, seemed to have collaborated with Askew in initiatives that left Jamaica Baptists terribly disappointed.
Whatever the difficulties, Calabar College and High School were destined for a new address – what is now called Red Hills Road. A new school plant was erected at the new Calabar site to accommodate 350 students; boarding facilities were constructed and both the Theological College and the High School occupied the vast site that had more than adequate space for a large sports field and for further expansion of the Calabar educational enterprise. In 1952, Calabar relocated from Studley Park Road to Red Hills Road. By then, however, Askew’s mission in Jamaica had come to an end.
Askew arrived in England, his homeland, on May 10, 1947, that is, a little more than two years after his arrival in Jamaica in January 1945. In 1953, he passed away in Somerset, England, at the age of 66.
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