People
Among the notable figures who spent their final years in Leigh, few can match the remarkable life of Dr Robert Moffat, who lived from 1795 to 1883. He is best remembered as a pioneer of mission work in South Africa, yet his story began far more modestly, for he started out in life working as a gardener. That early training in patience and quiet labour perhaps shaped the man who would spend decades serving communities far from home.
In 1816, Moffat travelled out to South Africa on behalf of the London Missionary Society. From 1826 until 1870 he made his home at Kuruman, in Bechuanaland, and it was there that his most enduring work was done. His long ministry in that remote station helped lay the foundations of missionary endeavour across the region, and he returned to England in 1870 after more than half a century of service abroad.
His family connections were as remarkable as his career. His daughter Mary married Dr David Livingstone, the celebrated missionary and explorer, uniting two of the most famous names in the history of African mission work. The story of the family was later told by Moffat's own son, John S Moffat, who wrote The Lives of Robert and Mary Moffat and served as his father's biographer.
Moffat's link with Leigh came through a valued friendship with Samuel Morley, whose life was recorded by Edwin Hodder in The Life of Samuel Morley. Morley was himself the builder of the Leigh Chapel, the building that today serves as the Royal British Legion Hall. When Moffat took up residence in the village in 1879, moving into Park House with his daughter, Miss Moffat, he became Samuel Morley's tenant. He lived at Park Cottage during his years in Leigh, and the chapel became the centre of his spiritual life.
Moffat was a Congregationalist by conviction, and in Leigh he worshipped at the village chapel just as he had done throughout his life. He was no passive member of the congregation: he frequently took part in the services, occasionally led them himself, and often assisted at the Lord's Supper. For a village chapel, having a missionary of such international reputation regularly in the pew and sometimes in the pulpit must have been a source of great pride and encouragement.
His death came on 9 August 1883, closing a life that had spanned nearly nine decades. His wife Mary had died eleven years before him, and he was laid to rest in Norwood Cemetery, buried beside her. News of his passing was marked locally in the September issue of the Village Message, which carried his obituary. Later writers kept his memory alive in the village too; Geoffrey Hitchcock contributed a parish magazine article about him in February 1982, ensuring that the gardener's son who became one of Africa's great missionaries would not be forgotten in the place he chose for his final home.