{{Short description|British missionary to Ibadan in Nigeria}} {{Infobox person | name = Anna Hinderer | image = Anna Hinderer Stained Glass at Liverpool Cathedral.jpg | image_size = | caption = Hinderer window in Liverpool Cathedral | birth_name = Anna Martin | birth_date = 1827 | birth_place = Hempnall | death_date = 1870 | death_place = Martham | death_cause = | other_names = | known_for = establishing a mission in Ibadan | education = | employer = Church Missionary Society | occupation = missionary | party = | spouse = David Hinderer | signature = Anna Hinderer's signature.jpg | website = | footnotes = | nationality = }} '''Anna Hinderer''' or '''Anna Martin''' (1827–1870) was a British missionary to Ibadan, Yoruba Country which is now part of Nigeria. She is celebrated by a stained-glass window in Liverpool Cathedral.
==Life== thumb|left Hinderer was born in Hempnall in Norfolk in 1827. Her mother died when she was five and from the age of twelve she was cared for by her aunt and grandfather until she went to live in Lowestoft. In Lowestoft's vicarage she worked there as secretary to the Reverend Francis and Richenda Cunningham. Whilst serving as a Sunday School teacher she reported her own conversion.<ref name=longa>[http://www.dacb.org/stories/nigeria/hinderer_anna.html Anna Hinderer], DACB, Retrieved 18 March 2017</ref> She had an ambition to be a missionary and on 14 October 1852 she married David Hinderer. Her new husband came from Germany but he was employed as an African missionary by the British Church Missionary Society.<ref name=odnb>Martin Lynn, ‘Hinderer, Anna (1827–1870)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/48961, accessed 18 March 2017]</ref>
In 1852 they set out to establish a new mission in Yoruba Country in what is now known as part of Nigeria. Anna briefly stayed at Abeokuta.<ref name=longa/> In 1853 she arrived in Ibadan and although they had intended to travel further they decided to set up their mission in that settlement.<ref name=odnb/> Ibadan's population was around 55,000 according to David.<ref name=city/> Anna would teach in the school that they built and she would run the mission when David was away preaching or trying to translate the New Testament.<ref name=odnb/> Her husband could speak Yoruba and he was on good terms with the local dignitaries. This advantage meant that the children of local chiefs attended and sometimes boarded at the school which Anna ran.<ref name=city>{{cite book|title=the city of ibadan|year = 1967|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xwI9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA15|publisher=CUP Archive|pages=15–|id=GGKEY:1ETAGBRLJJT}}</ref> The first two Christian converts were Yejide and Akielle who were the son and daughter of a local chief.<ref name=longa/> Lady Hannah Buxton sent boxes of toys to Hinderer in 1855. By 1866 her grandchildren were parcelling up toys to send to Nigeria.<ref name="MorrisonMartin2017">{{cite book|author1=Hugh Morrison|author2=Mary Clare Martin|title=Creating Religious Childhoods in Anglo-World and British Colonial Contexts, 1800-1950|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FtTzDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT108|date=20 January 2017|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-315-40876-7|page=108}}</ref>
In 1860 war broke out and the hostilities prevented them from being able to travel to the coast for five years. Parcels from Lady Buxton could not be sent as they would be ambushed. Money and food ran out and Hinderer had to return children in her own care wherever possible. Sadly one of their converts died after being mistreated by their family for being Christian.<ref name=longa/> This was the start of her poor health and she returned to England in 1869.<ref name=odnb/>
==Death and legacy== thumb|Two Victorian missionaries Hinderer died in Martham in Norfolk in 1870 where her husband was acting as curate. Two years later her memoirs were published. ''Seventeen Years in the Yoruba Country''<ref name="Hinderer1877">{{cite book|author=Anna Martin Hinderer|title=Seventeen years in the Yoruba country: memorials of Anna Hinderer, wife of the Rev. David Hinderer, C.M.S. missionary in Western Africa|url=https://archive.org/details/yorubacountry00hinduoft|year=1877|publisher=Religious Tract Society}}</ref> and although her husband was shown as joint author the book had been compiled by two sisters, named Hone, who lived in Halesowen Rectory. The book raised £31 and this was sent to Daniel and Sussanah Olubi who had taken over the mission in Ibadan. Daniel and Sussanah had married whilst working and deputising for the Hinderers.<ref name=longa/>
Hinderer has a small stained glass window devoted to her in the Lady Chapel of Liverpool Cathedral.<ref name=bit>[http://www.networknorwich.co.uk/Articles/456155/Network_Norwich_and_Norfolk/Resources/Culture/Book_on_little_known_Norfolk_Christian_heroine.aspx Book on Little Known Christian Heroine], NetworkNorwich, Retrieved 18 March 2017</ref> In 1933, Kudeti Girls' School in Ibadan restored a memorial in thanks for the life of Anna (and David) Hinderer. That school would eventually become part of a school that changed its name to St Anne's School in honour of Hinderer in 1950. The school celebrates its 'birthday' on 26 July, the feast day of Saint Anne.<ref name=Bello-Fadaka>Ifueko Bello-Fadaka, [https://punchng.com/st-annes-school-ibadan-1869-2019/ St Anne’s School, Ibadan (1869-2019)], ''The Punch'', 19 October 2019. Accessed 5 January 2021.</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * https://stanneschurchmolete.org.ngt * [https://archive.org/details/1889TheChurchMissionaryGleaner/page/121/mode/1up The Church Missionary Gleaner, 1889]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hinderer, Anna}} Category:1827 births Category:1870 deaths Category:People from South Norfolk (district) Category:People from Ibadan Category:English Protestant missionaries Category:Protestant missionaries in Nigeria Category:Female Christian missionaries Category:British expatriates in Nigeria Category:People from colonial Nigeria Category:History of Ibadan Category:People from Martham Category:People from Lowestoft