Charles Stewart Thompson

Charles Stewart Thompson
Thompson in The Church Missionary Gleamer, Vol. 27
Born	17 August 1851 (1851-08-17) Easington, Durham, England
Died	19 May 1900 (1900-05-20) (aged 48) Kherwara, India
Education	College of Islington
Known for	Introducing Christianity to the Bhils, medical missionary work, establishing schools and dispensaries, famine relief
Medical career
Profession	Doctor, medical missionary, reverend

Charles Stewart Thompson (17 August 1851 – 19 May 1900) was the first medical missionary^[1] in Kherwara Chhaoni in Rajputana, the Bhils region of Central India. His schools, famine relief centers, and medical service transformed care in the region.

Born and raised in Easington in County Durham, England, Thompson attended the College of Islington for brief medical training and was later accepted as a missionary by the Church Mission Society. He was deployed to Kherwara, India, where he spent nearly 20 years living and working, ultimately dedicating his life to the plight of the Bhils.

As a doctor, teacher, reverend and philanthropist, Thompson worked to treat cholera, leprosy, the Bubonic plague, ophthalmia, malaria, rheumatism and fever. During his medical missionary career, Thompson laid the foundation for later medical missions in the Bhil region by establishing primary schools, dispensaries, relief centers and orphanages, pioneering Christianity to the Bhils, and training several Bhils in medicine. Besides his medical work, Thompson was also interested in diminishing the communication gap between the Bhils and the Europeans, which eventually led him to publish the first grammar and vocabulary book in the Bhili language as well as a prayer book.