When Ruth Elton arrived in Ilesa as a three-year-old in July 1937, clinging to her parents’ hands after a long voyage from England, few could have imagined the imprint she would leave on Nigeria. Nearly nine decades later, Elton, the woman known to the Ebira people as Omotere—“the one who does good”—died on August 30,2025 at the age of 91, remembered as the country’s oldest missionary and perhaps the last surviving member of Ilesa’s once-vibrant British community.
Her life story is one of faith, sacrifice, and belonging: a little girl born in Britain who grew up Nigerian in tongue, soil, and spirit.
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The beginnings in Ilesa
Elton was the only child of Sydney Granville and Hannah Elton, British missionaries who had left their homeland to support the fiery revivalist Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola, whose 1930 revival shook the Yoruba heartland. While Babalola preached with prophetic fervour, “Pa Elton”—as her father came to be known—nurtured converts through teaching and discipleship.
In the shadow of this ministry, Elton spent her childhood in Okene and other communities. Her formative years were far removed from the Englishness of her birth; she was at home in Yoruba and Ebira tongues, immersed in Nigerian rhythms of life.
Choosing Nigeria over Britain
In 1975, long after her parents had been laid to rest in Ilesa, Elton made a defining choice. With no provision then for dual nationality, she renounced her British citizenship to naturalise as Nigerian. It was, she once explained, “a matter of love and conviction, not convenience.”
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The decision stunned some of her peers but, for Elton , it was a logical step. She had no intention of leaving. Nigeria was not her mission field anymore; it was her home.
Health, mission and “doing good”
While her father mentored church leaders who would later become household names—Benson Idahosa, Enoch Adeboye, David Oyedepo—Ruth quietly charted her own path. She threw herself into maternal and child health in Egbe, Okene, Koton-Karfe and beyond, working to stem infant mortality in communities plagued by poor hygiene and harmful practices.
“Many children at that time died because hygiene was very poor,” she once recalled in an interview. “So, I started by teaching the women how to change some of the practices they were used to. There was a change and a drastic reduction in infant death.”
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She railed against infant force-feeding, taught mothers better childcare, and offered skills training in sewing and handwork. Her work earned her the affectionate Ebira title Omotere.
Trials, writings and legacy
Her life was not without hardship. Once, she was beaten unconscious by robbers. She never married, never had children of her own. Yet she remained resolute, rooted in Ilesa, serving with quiet strength.
Beyond her missionary work, she also wrote three Christian books— “The Gospel of the Kingdom”, “Your Citizenship: Hell or the Kingdom?”, and “The Kingdom Has Come” — reflecting her deep theology and convictions.
Even in her later years, she retained a sharp critique of modern Christianity. “In those days, if you believe in Jesu, your heart is changed,” she lamented. “But today so many people go to church and their hearts are not changed. They only profess that they believe in Jesus. They don’t.”
Final years
On September 7 2024, Ruth turned 90. Frail but radiant, she was celebrated in her Ilesa home by church leaders who saw in her a living bridge between the early Pentecostal revival and today’s sprawling Nigerian Christianity. Less than a year later, she passed away.
She will be buried beside her parents in Ilesa—the town where she arrived as a toddler in 1937, the town she never left.
From a child of English missionaries to a Nigerian evangelist, Elton’s journey tells a larger story — of faith that crossed oceans, of a woman who chose belonging over convenience, and of the courage to remain faithful to a people until the very end.
