Charles Stewart Thompson (17 August 1851 – 19 May 1900) was the first medical missionary[1] in Kherwara Chhaoni in Rajputana, the Bhils region of Central India.

Born and raised in Easington in County Durham, England, Thompson attended the College of Islington for brief medical training and was later accepted as a missionary by the Church Mission Society.

He was deployed to Kherwara, India, where he spent nearly 20 years living and working, ultimately dedicating his life to the plight of the Bhils.

As a doctor, teacher, reverend and philanthropist, Thompson worked to treat cholera, leprosy, the Bubonic plague, ophthalmia, malaria, rheumatism and fever.

Reverend Charles Stewart Thompson was born on 17 August 1851, in Easington in County Durham, England, as the fourth of six children.

After three years of training at the College of Islington in London, he was accepted as a missionary by the Church Mission Society (CMS).

[3] In 1880, then age 29, Charles Stewart Thompson left England in response to an urgent invitation from Bishop Edward Bickersteth, the Vicar of Christ Church, Hempstead, at the time.

With a £1000 donation from Bishop Bickersteth, Thompson was sent by the Church Mission Society (CMS) of England to head a new missionary station in Kherwara.

They had believed that the Bhil's primitive beliefs in regard to health and healing would disappear once they realized the superiority of English medicine.

The consequence is that, although there are hundreds of sufferers lying in the pals, it is a very rare thing indeed to see a Bhil man, woman, or child near the dispensary.

Men and women, peering round corners, or over the enclosures surrounding their houses, might be seen watching us in all directions" But his breakthrough occurred when a helped named Masih Charan joined Thompson and acted as his interpreter.

Thompson did not record the number of patients that he treated or their specific afflictions "for fear of raising silly suspicions in the Bheel's dark mind" that he was trying to injure or perform rituals on them.

Thompson also published the first grammar and vocabulary book, Rudiments of the Bhili Language (1895),[10] in the Bhil dialect.

The mission school was initially run by a catechist, Masih Charan, the same interpreter who helped Thompson make his breakthrough in Obri.

[3] Thompson's mission school grew when other young Bhils joined, hearing about the success of the first pupils.

Under Thompson's guidance, Litchfield improved the infrastructure in Kherwara by building a new dispensary, a schoolhouse and a home for the Christian master and the twenty Bhil men who would be trained to run schools and dispense medicine at the outstations.

According to an interview with Surjibhai Timothibhai Suvera in Lucidia, Christians in Lusadiya can still remember when Thompson arrived and pitched his tent under a large banyan tree.

[3] In 1882, Charles Stewart Thompson began to translate the Gospel for the Bhils, in order to help them understand the Christian message.

Sukha had been told by his fellow Bhils and friends that if he converted, he would be disowned, but he was firm in his Christian beliefs and sought baptism anyway.

Another notable convert was Premji Hurji Patel, who was in fact a pupil at one of Thompson's mission schools in Kherwara.

Eventually, he pioneered Christianity in the Sabarkantha district, in Lusadiya, Biladiya, Ghoradar, Sarasu, Kotra and Baulia.

— Charles Stewart Thompson to the Church Mission SocietyThompson returned from Britain to India in November 1899 once he heard about the terrible Chappania Famine afflicting the Bhils region.

When Thompson returned, he found that the missionary who had been left in charge, Arthur Outram, was sick with malaria and the authorities of the Mewar state had provided close to no relief for the famine.

[3] He helped alleviate the Bhils of their starvation and disease by converting his primary day schools into relief centers.

[4][2] By April 1900, he had opened 15 relief centers in total and was feeding 5500 children, twice daily, that without his efforts would have been either dead or starving.

[14] Charles Stewart Thompson died at age 48 on 19 May 1900, during his efforts to relieve the famine-stricken Bhils from their suffering.

[1] He had fallen ill from cholera and in an effort to get him to European aid, Bhil people carried Thompson for 9 hours on the road to Kherwara.

[2] Four clergymen and A.H. Bull, a female missionary who eventually ran the girl's orphanage in Kherwara, offered their services as well.