History

Lennon pioneered in Okokoland at Ikare, then was made priest in charge of St. James Church. During this time he was instrumental in founding over 300 mission stations, rising to become leader of the Yoruba Mission from 1920 to 1951. He was made Canon of Lagos Cathedral in 1929 and Archdeacon of Ondo in 1944. But he was too large a man to limit himself to spiritual labours. Each of the various areas of his training seemed to have found an avenue for activity for the betterment of the people among whom he served.

In the educational field Lennon founded many schools including Victory College at Ikare, and was superintendent and manager of both churches and schools. Many his students rose to prominence in both church and state in Nigeria. In 1948 he was the alumnus chosen to receive the Mico Teachers’ College Medal for Meritorious Service. Lennon’s interest in agriculture led him to promote both agricultural and industrial exhibitions in 1928, 1939 and 1946. In Kabba province he established orchards and cocoa in Okokoland. Others of the Jamaican Anglican missionaries of the period also taught and encouraged the people’s interest in both these practical subjects.[3] Lennon is also said to have helped the people build a road from Ikare to Ose Ayare.

Having been trained as a dispenser (pharmacist) it is not surprising to find that Lennon founded a clinic, dispensary and a maternity home. In these his wife Margaret was involved with him. Starting with a medicine chest that had been donated by the church at Mavis Bank, in the hills of St. Andrew, Margaret used this to begin medical work, which led to the establishment of both the dispensary and maternity home.

It seems inevitable that Lennon would also become involved in the civic and political life of the Nigerian people. The powers that be chose him to sit in the old Legislative Council, and he was elected to the Western House of Assembly in 1943, where he served until 1951. The nation recognized his service by recommending him to the British Crown for the honours of Member of the British Empire (MBE) in 1943, and Officer of the British Empire (OBE) in 1947. In his later years back in his homeland, Jamaica, he would again become involved with local politics, through the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). He contested and won representation in the Federal Legislature, of the now defunct West Indian Federation, in the election of 1958.

The serious illness of his wife Margaret caused their return to Jamaica in 1951 where she died in 1957. At the time of Nigeria’s independence from British Colonial, rule in 1960, Archdeacon Lennon was one of a number of Jamaican missionary teacher/ministers invited back because of their outstanding contributions to the development of that country. So many of these Anglican and Presbyterians had been teachers and mentors to the new leaders, among them the Governor General Nnamdi Azikiwe, and the first native Governor of eastern Nigeria, Francis Ibiam. Lennon’s return to Jamaica in 1951 was not the end of his many activities and involvements for the good of his people. For the next ten years he not only ministered at the Mocho and Frankfield churches, but also served on a number of school boards in his native parish of Clarendon. After his wife’s death in 1957, due to a long illness, he remarried to Vinnette Lloyd in 1958.

At the time of his death at the age of 79, Lennon was Chairman of the Jamaica Church Missionary Society (JCMS), and a member of the Board of Mico College. He was buried at his home church, St. Paul’s Anglican, in Mocho. The Lord Bishop of Jamaica, Percival Gibson, and other clergy officiated at his funeral. Lennon Jnr. Secondary (now Lennon High School) the new High School built in his hometown, has been named in his honour.