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Macpherson, Alta Ingersoll Knapp, 1905-1942 (Christian missionary in Kenya)

 Person

Staff Only

Dates

  • Existence: 6 May 1905 - 19 March 1942

Biography

Born May 6 1905 in Kiambu, Kenya, the daughter of Rev. William P Knapp and Myrtle Isabella Ingersoll, American missionaries with the Gospel Missionary Society, an American Society of Baptist origin centred at Kambui 20 miles north of Kikuyu. As an adult, Alta specialised in girls education and training, and ran the ‘big girls work’. She married Robert Macpherson, a Church of Scotland education missionary, in 1930. Together they moved to Chogoria, Kenya where he served as headteacher for the school from 1930-1940. They had two children Margaret (1932); Myrtle (Anne) (1933). Myrtle died of a stroke in 1942, as did William Knapp, from Parkinsons diseaase. Alta died of endocarditis at the Tumutumu mission station in Kenya, 19 March 1942.