Robert Fairley was born at Dalkeith in Scotland ca. 1855. He became an ordained minister of the Primitive Methodist Church in 1876. He married Margaret Dickson in 1880 and, in 1883, he and his wife began the first of five terms of service in Fernando Po [Bioko]. Because of the high rate of mortality among Europeans in West Africa two years was set as the maximum period for one term of service. The Fairleys worked in Fernando Po until ca. 1904 although Robert Fairley also made a pioneer journey to what was then known as the Oil Rivers Protectorate, now part of Nigeria. Here he was instrumental in establishing a mission at Akwa Effy in eastern Nigeria. Margaret Fairley died in 1928 and Robert Fairley, aged 82, in 1937.
From the guide to the Fairley, Robert and Margaret, ca. 1881-1937, (School of Oriental and African Studies)
