Theophilus Waldmeier

Waldmeier was born in the Canton of Aargau and was brought up by his mother and grandmother, strict Roman Catholics, who insisted on three hours of daily prayer.

He enrolled in the Evangelical Training School for Foreign Missionaries in St. Chrischona and was consecrated in September 1858.

In Alexandria he joined four other missionaries on a six month journey down the Nile and across eastern Sudan to Debre Tabor.

[1] [2] The Europeans were allowed to establish a boarding school which included an artisan training program.

Waldmeier and his colleagues were put in charge of casting an enormous bronze mortar, the Sebastopol, capable of firing a 1000lb cannon ball.

Special roads had to be made for the Sebastopol which at times needed eight hundred men to move.