Rev James Alexander 1910 – 1985
James Mackintosh
Alexander was born in Jammu, India. on August 18th 1910. His parents were both Church of Scotland missionaries
to India. He graduated in classics and theology from Edinburgh University and came to Malawi as a Church of Scotland missionary
in 1938 with his wife, Margaret Baird. He worked at the Karonga mission station until 1943 and then at Livingstonia, where
he preached in Chitumbuka in the newly completed Church. From 1947 to 1951, he was the head of the mission station in Livingstonia.
Many of the future leaders of the CCAP church in Malawi were his theological students – Rev Sinoya Nkowane, Rev Stephen
Kauta Msiska, and Rev. Mkandawire among others. He had a deep love for Malawi and its people, especially those in the northern
part of the country and spent many of the happiest days of his life there. He returned to Scotland in 1951 only so that his
4 children, Jean, Marion, Elspeth and David, could receive their secondary education there. He was the minister of the Innerleithen
Old Parish Church until 1960, when he became the General Secretary of the Bible Society of Scotland. His home was always open
to many visiting Malawian students and he visited Malawi again in 1967. He died
in January 1985. It would have made him very happy to know that there is now a university in his beloved Livingstonia and
that students from the north of the country can receive their education here and go on to educate others.
The Alexander Scholarship
The Alexander Scholarship has been established by
Rev Alexander's family in his memory. The aim of the scholarship is to support students from the Northern Region to become
teachers.
