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CHARLOTTE CLANEY LAMBIE

       Charlotte Claney was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. D. Claney. At the time of her birth her father was in business in Stanwood.

       Charlotte graduated from Stanwood High School in 1899. She, with her parents and brother, was a member of the United Presbyterian Church and Sunday school, and her mother was very active in the women’s missionary circle.

       About 1903 Charlotte volunteered to be sent by the church’s foreign mission board to Egypt as a missionary. In Egypt she met Thomas Lambie, a young medical missionary from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They were married and moved on south into the Sudan, where they continued to work under the auspices of the United Presbyterian Mission Board. Two children were born to the Lambies.

       Doctor Tom Lambie became known among the natives as a wonder worker. He was doubtless the only doctor in an area of several hundred miles. After they had been in the Sudan several years he organized a safari over into Ethiopia. Their purpose was not to hunt but to explore the country. Naturally they camped as they traveled. The terrain was rough and there were only mountain trails, no roads.

       After they had crossed the border into Ethiopia, they were disturbed one night as they lay in their sleeping bags. They could hear people approaching their camp. The approaching party proved to be Ethiopian natives who were friendly. Their leader made it known immediately that he was searching for the great American doctor; he must find him because he was nearly mad with a pain in one side of his head. With only that much information, Dr. Lambie decided to use an experimental procedure. He filled a syringe with oil and flushed the patient’s ear. He got a wood beetle, the cause of the maddening pain the man had been suffering.

       The patient, whose gratitude knew no bounds, proved to be the native chieftan of the area through which they were traveling. He extended to the party every privilege as guests in his area and wrote a letter for Dr. Lambie, introducing him to Emperor Haile Selassie. When the Lambies reached the capital, Addis Ababa, the emperor welcomed them with genial hospitality and a lasting friendship sprang up between him and the American doctor.

       On this visit Dr. Lambie saw that Addis Ababa needed . . .

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. . . a modern Christian hospital. Before long he severed his relationship with the mission in the Sudan and started a hospital in Addis, as a nucleus of a new mission station. This was in the early 1920’s. The mission grew, with outposts established in many places in Ethiopia. Because of the fine friendship which Haile Selassie and the American missionaries enjoyed, an especially strong tie was woven between Ethiopia and the United States. In the years since then no other African country except Liberia has shown such good will toward the United States as Ethiopia has.

       When Italy under Mussolini attacked Ethiopia in the 1930’s, Haile Selassie took refuge in England. Charlotte Lambie was not well and Addis Ababa was neither a comfortable nor a safe place in which to live. The Lambies left Ethiopia, expecting to stay in the Holy Land until conditions improved. On the journey, Charlotte grew very ill and died. The site of her grave is Port Said, Egypt.

       Doctor Tom Lambie eventually got to the Holy Land and there started an orphanage. Information regarding the closing years of his life is not available, much to our regret.