Douglas Strangways-Dixon

Douglas Strangways-Dixon (1903–1980), a British medical missionary and physician who was the director of the CMS Meseno Hospital in Kenya, Kavarando region. To serve the remote missionary stations, Dixon held dual qualifications of M.R.C.S and L.R.C.P, and an L.D.S (Licentiate in Dental Surgery) a qualification that provided Dixon with the specialized skills in dentistry. After concluding his missionary service, Dixon stayed in Kenya, working as a government medical officer and later as a physician for the tea company Brooke Bond. He retired to his -acres estate at Sitoten.

Early life

Personal life

Douglas Strangways-Dixon was born Douglas Stangways Dixon on January 8, 1903 in Ealing, Middlesex, England. (His name was change to a hyphenated name during WWII.) His father was Robert Haldane Dixon was born in Truro, Cornwall, England in about (1876), who was a medical practitioner. The 1911 census records his father as a widower, living with several children and multiple domestic servants. Strangeays-Dixon was one of many children in a large family, with three younger siblings, Margaret Strangways Dixon (1905), Dorothy Haldane Dixon (1905) and Arthur Robert Dixon (1906).

Douglas Strangways-Dixon married Kathleen Mary Heywood in 1926–1927. Kathleen was born on 1 April 1903 in Kenya and died in 1999 in Kenya. She was the daughter of Bishop Richard Stanley Heywood and the sister of Norah Heywood, who married Alan Arthur Murray Lawrence (A District Officer and later District Commissioner for the government in Kenya).

Heywood and Strangeways-Dixon had three children: Brian Heywood Dixon (born 22 May 1928, Maseno died 8 May 2009), John Dixon (born 2 September 1930, London – died 2002), and Patricia Dixon (later Dixson), born 11 September 1932 in Nairobi.

Dixon died in 1980 and was buried at All Saints' Church (Anglican) in Limuru, Kenya.

Education

Like his father, Dixon studied medicine. He received his medical, surgical and dental training in England prior to beginning his missionary work. He received certificates of L.R.C.P (Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians) from London & M.R.C.S (Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons) from England. He also received an L.D.S (Licentiate in Dental Surgery) a qualification that provided Dixon with the specialized skills to perform dental surgery alongside general medical and surgical procedures.

Mission

Medical missionary service

As a part of the Church Missionary Society (CMS), Dixon was stationed in the Kavirondo region of Kenya Colony. He directed the Maseno Hospital, where he arrived in 1926 following his marriage to Kathleen Mary Heywood. Dr. Dixon's tenure at Maseno was marked by clinical expansion and the training of local staff. Under Strangways-Dixon's leadership, by 1937, the hospital had grown to include dedicated blocks for men and women, each housing twenty-five iron bed stands as well as an operating theatre and isolation wards for infectious cases.

Dixon viewed his work as a "holy war" against disease, ignorance, and fear. He worked closely with nursing staff, such as Miss A. R. Whittemore and Sister Whittemore , to oversee a training program that by 1927 included ten African girls and eleven boys learning medical and maternity work. Stangways-Dixon specifically sought to replace traditional beliefs in "witchcraft" and the "evil eye" with biological science and clinical hygiene.

Hosptial Expansion

In late 1927, Dixon secured land for an extension to the hospital to build a dedicated maternity and infant welfare ward, aiming to address a local infant mortality rate he estimated at 600 per thousand. His formal missionary service with the CMS concluded around 1930, his medical work in Kenya continued as he transitioned into roles as a government medical officer and a physician for Brooke Bond in Kericho.

Maseno Hospital

Maseno Hospital was established in the Kavirondo region of Kenya colony as a joint medical mission between the Red Cross and Church Missionary Society (CMS) in 1906 after the founding of the Maseno Mission School the same year. By 1927, the facility had grown into vital regional hub featuring separate men's and women's block with fifty iron bedsteads, an operating theater, and specialized isolation wards for infectious diseases.

Under the direction of Dr. Strangways-Dixon, the hospital treated over 1,400 in patients annually and performed roughly 240 operations for catchment area extending 150 miles into Uganda. The mission specifically focused on a war against ignorance, training ten African girls and eleven boys as medical assistants to replace traditional beliefs in the "evil eye" with clinical science. Through the dedicated efforts of staff like the evangelist Enos and Sister Whittemore, the hospital successfully addressed local plague outbreaks and expanded its services to include a dedicated maternity ward to combat high infant mortality.

Later life and legacy

Douglas Strangways Dixon was recognized for dedication to public health within the colonial medical service, specifically his leadership of the Maseno Hospital, government service, and work for the Booke Bond tea company. He gained the trust of local populations in Maseno and Kericho, where he modernized maternity care and trained the first generation of African hospital assistants.

After resigning from missionary service around 1930, Dixon continued his medical career in the private sector, serving as a physician for the Brooke Bond tea estates and later as a medical officer for the Kenya Government.

In later years, Dixon retired into agriculture, managing a successful 2,000-acre farm at Sitoten near Kericho from 1948 to 1965, while maintaining connections to medicine and the local community. He held leadership roles in the Anglican church, contributing to the growth of parishes in Limuru and Kericho.

Throughout his life, Dixon not only delivered essential surgical and medical care to underserved communities, but also played a key role in evolving Western Kenya's healthcare system from missionary roots to a structured public service.