Church of Scotland minister the Rev George Cooper has died at the age of 99.
Mr Cooper, from Coventry, gained his degree in divinity from New College, University of London, before following in the footsteps of Robert Moffat and David Livingstone and joining the London Missionary Society.
Embarking for Central Africa in June 1946 with his family, his first posting was to Kawimbe near Abercorn (modern day Mbala in Zambia).
During his 50-year service as a missionary he worked with several different organisations.
In Tanganyika, he worked for many years with Belra (the British Empire Leprosy Relief Association), first running a leprosarium in the Newala district in the south and then in Chazi, in the Morogoro district in the east, where he built a new hospital, a church and a mosque, as well as developing a successful farm.
In 1966 he joined the Church of Scotland, first becoming the minister of St Margaret’s Church in Mombasa before moving to Dar-Es-Salaam in modern day Tanzania, where he was the minister at St Columba’s Church.
After a short spell on Shetland he returned to Kenya in 1980 to work with the Presbyterian Church of East Africa managing agricultural projects at Mpeketoni in the north-east of the country near the Somali border and Tharaka, near the very famous Chogoria Mission Station on the eastern slopes of Mount Kenya.
Although he formally retired in 1986, he spent another 10 years volunteering on other rural development projects in Kenya.