Binns Family Album

Photos of the family of

  H K Binns (1852-1935)

Henry Kerr Binns (aka Harry) was Doris' mother's father. He was brought up in Worcester, where his father ran the Royal Worcester porcelain works. Harry joined the Church Missionary Society, trained at the college in Islington, was ordained deacon and was sent as a missionary to Rabai, nr Mombasa, East Africa, in December 1875. Invalided back to England in 1877, he was shipwrecked on the voyage home. He  made it home, was ordained priest, and married Anna Katherine Ferrar, a cousin from Tasmania. They returned to East Africa in November 1878, and worked in Rabai until 1882 and then in Frere town for a year. During that time they met Stanley, the explorer, who spent a couple of nights with them in May 1879. They went to Tasmania where Harry did his curacy, returning to East Africa in 1886 for a couple of years.  In 1888 Harry went ot St James, Taunton, and then was made Secretary of the Mission in Mombasa in 1889 and appointed Archdeacon there in 1910. He resigned from mission service in 1923, and lived in Penselwood, Somerset, until his death.

Harry and Anna had six children, Alec (1880-1911), Eleanor (1883-1955), Bessie (1884-1967), Elvie (1885-1911), May (1887-1974, Doris' mother), and Gracie (1889-1967). Anna went to Tasmania with Elvie when Elvie was ill; Eleanor went out to East Africa to look after her father, but met and married her husband there, so Bessie went out. She met and married her husband, so May went out. She met and married her husband (Doris' father), so finally Gracie went out. She did the same!