Charles
Theophilus Hahn, Anglican missionary, was the only son of Theophilus Sigmund
Hahn and his wife Helen Maxfield Hahn, born Walters. He grew up in the village
of Headley, Hampshire, and was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, where he
graduated as Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1892 and Master of Arts (MA) in 1895. He
trained for the ministry at Leeds Clergy School in 1892 and was ordained as a
deacon in 1893 and as a priest in 1894. After holding various church
appointments in England, he came to South Africa in 1908 to undertake
missionary work for the (Anglican) Church of the Province of South Africa in
the Diocese of Zululand. After a year as curate of Etalaneni, he became priest-in-charge of the Inhlwati ('Nhlwati) Mission station. He
lived in Nongoma, the largest town in his territory. He
was appointed a canon of St Peter's Cathedral, Vryheid, in 1912 and Archdeacon of Eshowe in 1913. In
1916, he was appointed priest-in-charge of Empangeni while
retaining his responsibilities in Inhlwati. During 1909-1910, he applied
to purchase two plots in the township of Nongoma and for a license to conduct
Christian marriages of Africans. In 1916, he applied for a church site in the
Hlabisa district.
Between 1908
and 1916, Hahn produced about 300 life-size water colour illustrations of the
plants of KwaZulu-Natal. His paintings are accurate and have considerable
charm, though they appear to have been made for his personal satisfaction
rather than for scientific purposes. Most of the plants are accurately
identified, perhaps by J.M. Wood*. The collection of paintings came to light in
South Africa only in 1988, when 235 of them were brought to the Compton
Herbarium at Kirstenbosch for identification. In addition to his flower
paintings, Hahn painted landscapes in South Africa as well as in Namibia, England
and other places.
Hahn went
to England in 1917 and served as an army chaplain in France in 1918. He changed
his surname to Headley, the name of the village where he grew up, in response
to the anti-German sentiment prevailing in Britain during World War I
(1914-1918). He returned to South Africa with his new name in 1919 to take up the position of editor of
the Church Chronicle for the Province of South Africa. He was also Sub-dean of St. George's Cathedral, Cape Town. He moved to Namibia in 1922 and was priest-in-charge of Keetmanshoop for
two years and then priest-in-charge of Swakopmund and Walvis Bay for a
further three years. From 1924 he was also Archdeacon of Damaraland. He moved
to England in 1928 to a position in the Diocese of Chelmsford, Essex. He hoped
to work in South Africa again, but illness prevented it and he died in London
in 1930.
