THOMAS RAGLAND | Tamil Nadu Missionary | Augustin Jebakumar

Thomas Gajetan Ragland - Tamil Nadu Missionary period 1846 to 1858
Ragland was a math scholar at Cambridge and had even become tutor at Corpus Christi College. In 1845 he joined the CMS work in India. He emphasized to the CMS that south Tinnevelly had many missionaries and many missionary projects going on while the north had virtually nothing—not even a resident missionary prior to his arrival. Ragland compiled a team consisting of three missionaries and several Indian helpers, and spent several years getting to know the 1000-town area. This “Heroic Pioneer”74 was active in the northern part of the Tirunelveli district from 1846 to 1858 when he died suddenly of a haemorrhage while resting in his bungalow.
The Ragland Memorial Church in Sivakasi preserves the memory of one whom the Indian church has never forgotten. The four silver cups, engraved with the pelican (the symbol of Corpus Christi College), which he had won while a young man as mathematical prizes at Cambridge, are still in use as chalices in the churches of that northern Tirunelveli which he loved and for which he gave his life.