NAPARIMA COLLEGE
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Some Notes on the Canadian Mission to Trinidad, XIIb
Regional Offshoots of the Canadian Mission to Trinidad: Grenada


Grenada was the first colony to make an appeal to the Canadian missionaries in Trinidad.

In 1883, Rev. James Muir of the Church of Scotland in Grenada asked Rev. Grant for assistance for the 1,800 East Indians on plantations there. In 1884, accompanied by the redoubtable Lal Behari and two other native Trinidadians, Rev. Grant visited St George, Grenada. In the company of Rev. Muir, and the Attorney-General of Grenada, as well as other officials, he presided over the inauguration of the Mission there.

Rev. Muir removed to Demerara, British Guiana in 1887. He was succeeded in Grenada by Rev. James Rae, who in turn was followed by Rev. Francis A. Ross in 1892. Rev. Ross secured enhanced funding from the congregation of St Andrews Church in Rev. Grant's hometown of Pictou, Nova Scotia. All three ministers were aided initially by visits from the San Fernando field of the Trinidad Mission. For example, Rev. Henry Laltoo visited several times - his first wife was from a Grenadian community; Catechist Sevnarayan went in 1887 to the village of Samaritan, where Rev. Morton was impressed, eight years later, to find a roomy school with more than 80 converted students.

By 1892, Rev. Grant and Morton had founded their Theological College in San Fernando, and a few native Indians from Grenada joined those from Trinidad who were being trained for ministership. One of the first of these was Mr. Matadeen, a catechist in 1895, who was trained at the College. When Naparima College itself was founded a few years later, a few of its attendees in the early years came from the Mission in other colonies. Walter Isaac Nehalsingh was one of these, attending Naparima and becoming a minister in his Grenadian community in the 1920's.



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Further Note: Dr Grant in the field
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