John William Hoyland was head of Kingsmead, a Selly Oak College and a Quaker study centre set up by the Friends Foreign Mission Association in 1903 to train its workers for foreign service. He was also Chairman of Selly Oak Colleges Council which was set up in 1919 which was the representative body of the seven constituent colleges. Albert Schweitzer was invited to Selly Oak during his visit to England in 1922 when he was delivering his Dale lectures on Civilisation and Ethics at Mansfield College, Oxford. According to a biography of J.W. Hoyland, the invitation to Schweitzer was suggested to Hoyland by John Naish, a Quaker missionary and Schweitzer combined this speaking engagement to Birmingham with a Bach recital on the organ held in Carrs Lane Church. Mrs Powers (ne Metzger), a former member of the Basel Mission in India, joined the teaching staff at Kingsmead in 1920 as a language teacher and she built up a department of language study for the training of missionary candidates.
Reference: H. G. Wood, John William Hoyland of Kingsmead (London: SPCK, 1931).
From the guide to the Lectures given by Professor Albert Schweitzer, 1922, (University of Birmingham Information Services, Special Collections Department)
