Background
James Chalmers was born on August 4, 1841 at Ardrishaig in Argyll.
James Chalmers was born on August 4, 1841 at Ardrishaig in Argyll.
After serving in the Glasgow City Mission James Chalmers passed through Cheshunt College, and, being accepted by the London Missionary Society, was appointed to Rarotonga in the South Pacific in 1866.
James Chalmers was appointed to Rarotonga in the South Pacific in 1866. Here the natives gave him the well-known name " Tamate. " After ten years' service, especially in training native evangelists, he was transferred to New Guinea. In addition to his enthusiastic but sane missionary work, Chalmers did much to open up the island, and, with his colleague W. G. Lawes, gave valuable aid in the British annexation of the south-east coast of the island. On the 8th of April 1901, in company with a brother missionary, Oliver Tomkins, he was killed by cannibals at Goaribari Island.
On 17 October 1865 James Chalmers was married to Jane Hercus and two days later was ordained to the Christian ministry. In 1888 he married Sarah Elizabeth Harrison, a widow who had been a childhood friend of his first wife. She died in 1900. There were no children by either marriage.
