God on Two Wheels: Motorcycle Missionaries

Christian missionaries have been visiting the far corners of the earth for hundreds of years, spreading their message to indigenous populations where ever they may be found.  Initially these pilgrimages were made on foot or by horseback, but with the mass production of motorcycles, things got just a little bit easier...

The photo above is actually not even a photo, but a hand panted glass slide for a "magic lantern", which was a precursor to the modern slide projector.  This slide was part of a series which could be rented by Presbyterian Churches to educate their congregations on foreign missions and to help raise funds to support them.  Taken in the 1920's somewhere in Cameroon, West Africa, the text accompanying this slide reads "Or if the road is not too bad, the missionary may make his trips in his motorcycle and side car."

This newspaper clipping from the British Middlesex Chronicle in 1937 shows the presentation of a BSA motorcycle and check to Father Owen McCoy by Sir Patrick Hannon, MP (Member of Parliament). Members of the Heston Parish raised money to purchase the motorcycle and to support Father McCoy on his mission to NAVRONGO, Gold Coast, British West Africa.

Astride his Harley-Davidson, this missionary from the Evangelical Lutheran Church prepares to head into the interior of India, ca. 1920.

Elders Herman J. Smith & A. Kay Berry astride motorcycles in South Africa.  These missionaries were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons).  The picture was taken sometime between 1929 and 1932.

Here's a Scandinavian riding his 1917 Harley while on mission in Africa.

My final picture shows Walter & Ingrid Trobisch in Cameroon, West Africa from the Family Life Mission back in 1953.