David Evan Jones (missionary)

David Evan Jones, Mizo name Zosaphluia (15 February 1870 – 10 August 1947), was a Welsh missionary to the Mizo people in the Lushai Hills, what is now Mizoram, India.

Biography

Jones was born at Brynmelyn, Llandderfel and educated at Bala Grammar School, then the Liverpool Institute, Bala College and the Presbyterian United Theological College, Aberystwyth. He was pastor of a church in Bettws, Montgomery, for two years before being formally ordained into the English Baptists in 1897 and sailing for India on 26 June of that year. He arrived at Aizawl, in the Lushai Hills, two months later on 31 August.[1]

In 1904, he married Katherine Ellen Williams, at Sylhet (now Bangladesh), and they had a son Alwyn. The Jones retired to Britain after 30 years in Mizoram in 1927 and lived in Liverpool and Prestatyn. David died in Prestatyn, on 10 August 1947, aged 77.[1] Katherine died on 20 May 1950.[2]

Mizo language

Jones learnt the Mizo language from Scottish missionaries James Herbert Lorrain and Fred W. Savidge who had devised the Lushai language alphabet.[3] He was part of a team translating the Bible into the local Lakher and Lushai languages.[4]

See also

References
  1. Jones, J. Edward (2002). "JONES, David Evan (1870—1947)". In Rees, D. Ben (ed.). Vehicles of Grace and Hope: Welsh Missionaries in India, 1800-1970. William Carey Library. pp. 82–83. ISBN 978-0-87808-505-7.
  2. "Mizo Story 4". 15 April 2013. Archived from the original on 15 April 2013.
  3. Presbyterian Communication - Mizoram Synod "D.E. Jones of Welsh Presbyterian Church arrived in 1897, learned Mizo language from Savidge and Lorrain."
  4. Pran Nath Chopra, ed. (1992). Encyclopaedia of India. Vol. 31–32. p. 105.
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