Leonard Sharland

Leonard William Chapple Sharland LTh MA (1904 – 1978) was a pioneer missionary amongst the Dinka people with the Gordon Memorial Mission of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in southern Sudan in the middle of the 20th century.

His Early Life

Leonard Sharland was born on 30 Aug 1904 at Camperdown Terrace, Exmouth, Devon. He was from a Devonian family which for many generations lived in Morchard Bishop. His parents William and Ethel Sharland moved from Exeter to Exmouth not long before Leonard was born. They then moved to terraced house in Clifford Road, Wallasey on Merseyside. Leonard left school at 12 years old during the 1st World War to work as an office boy.

Despite leaving school so young, Leonard studied in the evenings and was admitted to Theological College where he obtained a Licentiate of Theology in 1929. He then went on to complete a Master’s Degree at St John’s College, Durham. He was the first member of the family to go on to further education.

Ordination and Curacies

Leonard was ordained a deacon 1930, and ordained Priest in 1931 in Chester. He was curate of Christ Church Macclesfield from 1930. During this time he was very active in work with youth, and followed his calling to become a missionary.

A Missionary in Sudan

In 1932 Leonard’s brother, Charles, who was a cabinet maker, went out to southern Sudan to start a trade school in Lainya, west of Juba. Two years later Leonard followed him.

Leonard joined the Gordon Memorial Mission of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and left for Sudan in 1934. His first station was at Malek, on the banks of the River Nile where he served a sort of apprenticeship under the original pioneer missionary of the mission in Sudan, Archdeacon Shaw. He spent a time standing in as headmaster in Nugent School Loka, but his main work was amongst the cattle keeping Dinka people. With his colleagues he established mission stations at Gel River, Akot and Panekar, finally ending his time with the mission in Rumbek, where he saw the rapid changes of Sudan gaining independence. As an ordained minister he has a pastoral ministry, but was also very involved in education, and a certain amount of building. He was made a Canon of Khartoum Cathedral in 1951. Leonard returned from leave in England in 1951 with a wife and when he left in 1958 had three sons.

From 1946-1955 Leonard was the field editor of the ‘Southern Sudan Mailbag’ which brought news, mostly in the form of letters, from members of the Gordon Memorial Sudan Mission.

A Clergyman in England

After returning to England from Sudan in 1958, Leonard spent a year in Limpsfield, Surrey working on manuscript of the Bible translated into the Dinka language. At the end of 1959 he took up the post of Vicar at St Faith’s, Maidstone, a busy town centre church. After ten years there he moved to a country parish as Rector of St Mary’s, Hardington Mandeville, near Yeovil, Somerset.

When he retired in 1976 Leonard returned with his family to his roots in Devon to Lympstone, just outside Exmouth where he was born. He died on 5 Feb 1978 at a mission conference at Lee Abbey, Lynton, North Devon.

Family

Leonard Sharland married Faith Streatfeild (1915-2001) in 1951 at her home in Westerham Kent. She was also a missionary with the same mission in Sudan and came from an old Kentish family. Two of her aunts had also been missionaries in Uganda and China.

Leonard and Faith had four sons, Peter (born 1952), Roger (born 1953), Andrew (born 1956) and David (born 1959). Two of the sons, Roger and David, and his grandson Emmanuel have been missionaries in Sudan.

His eldest son Colonel Peter Roland Sharland, late of The Light Infantry was awared the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in The New Year Honours 2006.