Brooking, Lionel (1872–1904)

By Eugenio Di Dionisio

×

Eugenio Di Dionisio

First Published: January 29, 2020

Lionel Brooking, English Adventist nurse, canvasser, teacher, was one of the first converts and missionaries in Argentina.1

Brooking was a young English immigrant and a member of a Protestant church in Buenos Aires and of the Young Men’s Christian Association, YMCA. In 1892 he met and befriended the first Adventist canvassers who had come to South America in the previous year: C. A. Nowlen, E. W. Snyder, A. B. Stauffer. He accepted the Adventist message in Buenos Aires after reading the book The Great Controversy, by Ellen G. White, which he bought from Snyder and which he studied along with the Bible. The Review and Herald published in May 1893 a letter from E. W. Snyder in which he reports Brooking’s conversion without having heard a sermon. He reports his strict observance of the principles of health and stewardship.2

Brooking started to work as a canvasser in July 1892. He did it at first among the French-, English-, and German-speaking communities, with great results.3 He made extensive trips through the colonies of Santa Fe and Chaco with The Great Controversy in French. Later he worked in Uruguay, as he would do years later in England. In Uruguay he worked especially for the Waldenses.4

Some articles report his work in Argentina in the 1890s.5 Frank H. Westphal reports he traveled with John McCarthy and Lionel Brooking to Las Garzas, Santa Fe, where they organized a small church.6 Brooking started a Spanish-speaking Adventist school in Las Garzas, in 1897, the first one in the province. There he gave training courses for canvassers and classes for children. In that place lived the family of Pedro Peverini, one of the pioneers of South American Adventism. The attendance was ten students, with the possibility of increasing the number.7 Sometime later Brooking went to the United States.8

Then he studied nursing at Battle Creek Sanitarium, Michigan, United States. There he married a nurse, and they both became missionaries in Argentina. For some time he helped Dr. Robert H. Habenicht.9 Because of his wife’s health, Brooking felt the need to go back to England, where he worked as a nurse in Caterham Sanitarium, in Surrey. Afterward, he provided the same services at the Leicester institution. He was a faithful member and an elder for years at the Adventist church in Leicester.10

Lionel Brooking died on May 6, 1942, at Falmouth Hospital, Cornwall, England. For approximately fifty years he served the church faithfully and efficiently. He was the first regular canvasser recruited throughout the South American continent.11

Sources

Brooking, Lionel. “Abriendo campos en Sudamérica” [Opening Fields in South America]. ARH 70, no. 34 (August 22, 1893).

———. “After Forty Years.” ARH, July 28, 1932.

———. “Argentina.” ARH, September 21, 1897.

———. “Argentina.” ARH, August 10, 1897.

———. “Argentina.” ARH, April 1, 1902.

———. “Argentina.” ARH, July 1, 1902.

———. “Cómo protegió Dios a los valdenses en la América del Sur” [How God Protected the Waldenses in South America]. La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review], September 1924.

———. “En el campo de colportaje sudamericano” [In the Field of South American Canvassing]. ARH, March 21, 1893.

———. “ ‘En peligros de aguas’ en Argentina” [In Water Hazards in Argentina]. ARH, June 15, 1897.

———. “Noticias de la obra—Sección del Río de la Plata—Desde Inglaterra” [News of the Work—Section of River Plate—From England]. La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review], March 1905.

———. “Noticias de Inglaterra” [News From England]. La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review], July 1905.

———. “Sanatorio de Caterham—Inglaterra” [Caterham Sanitarium—England]. La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review], October 1906.

Brooking, Lionel. [Untitled]. La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review], March 1907.

Brooks, Edgar.“Cincuenta años de fiel servicio” [Fifty Years of Faithful Service]. La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review] 42, no. 15 (August 24, 1942).

———. “Las Bodas de Oro en el colportaje” [The Golden Anniversary in Canvassing]. La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review] 42, no. 8 (May 11, 1942).

Chadwick, L. C. “Republic Argentina” [Argentina Republic]. ARH 69, no. 41 (October 19, 1892).

———. “South America.” The Home Missionary 4, no. 12 (December 1892).

Greenleaf, Floyd. Tierra de esperanza: El crecimiento de la Iglesia Adventista Sudamericana [Land of Hope: The Growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South America]. Trans. Claudia Blath. Buenos Aires: South America Spanish Publishing House, 2011.

Habenicht, Robert H. “The Medical Work in Argentina.” ARH, July 8, 1902.

Howell, Emma E. El gran movimiento adventista [The Great Adventist Movement]. Buenos Aires: South America Spanish Publishing House, 1975.

McCarthy, John M. “Ecos desde Sudamérica” [Echoes From South America]. The Home Missionary 8, no. 4 (April 1896).

———. “República Argentina” [Argentina Republic]. ARH, July 6, 1897.

Meyers, E. H. Reseña de los comienzos de la obra en Sudamérica [Overview of the Beginnings of the Work in South America]. Florida, Buenos Aires: South America Spanish Publishing House, 1940.

Neufeld, Don F., ed. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, 2nd ed. Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1996.

Peverini, Amaro N. Pietro Giovanni, el hombre del destino [Pietro Giovanni, the Man of Destiny]. Libertador San Martín, Entre Ríos: 2012.

Peverini, Héctor J. En las huellas de la Providencia [In the Footsteps of Providence]. Buenos Aires: South America Spanish Publishing House, 1988.

Plenc, Daniel Oscar. Misioneros en Sudamérica: Pioneros del Adventismo en Latinoamérica [Missionaries in South America: Pioneers of Adventism in Latin America], 2nd ed. Buenos Aires: South America Spanish Publishing House, 2008.

Rodd, A. S. “The Journey’s End.” ARH, July 30, 1942.

Snyder, E. W. “Argentina.” ARH, May 2, 1893.

Wensell, Egil H. El poder de una esperanza, que educa y sana [The Power of a Hope That Educates and Heals]. Libertador San Martín, Entre Ríos: River Plate Adventist University Editorial, 1993.

Westphal, Frank H. “Argentina.” ARH, June 15, 1897.

———. “Mission Board Correspondence.” The Home Missionary 9, no. 7 (August 1897).

Notes

  1. L. C. Chadwick, “Republic Argentina,” ARH, October 19, 1892, 651; Lionel Brooking, “After Forty Years,” ARH, July 28, 1932, 19; Emma E. Howell, El gran movimiento adventista [The Great Adventist Movement] (Buenos Aires: South America Spanish Publishing House, 1975), 196; E. H. Meyers, Reseña de los comienzos de la obra en Sudamérica [Overview of the Beginnings of the Work in South America] (Florida, Buenos Aires: South America Spanish Publishing House, [1940]), 9, 10; Floyd Greenleaf, Tierra de esperanza: El crecimiento de la Iglesia Adventista Sudamericana [Land of Hope: The Growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South America], trans. Claudia Blath (Buenos Aires: South America Spanish Publishing House, 2011), 42, 59, 65, 83.

  2. E. W. Snyder, “Argentina,” ARH, May 2, 1893, 278.

  3. Héctor J. Peverini, En las huellas de la Providencia [In the Footsteps of Providence], 1st ed. (Buenos Aires: South America Spanish Publishing House, 1988), 41, 42; Greenleaf, 31.

  4. Peverini, 42, 43; L. C. Chadwick, “South America,” The Home Missionary 4, no. 12 (December 1892): 283; Lionel Brooking, “Argentina,” ARH, April 1, 1902, 186; Edgar Brooks, “Las Bodas de Oro en el colportaje” [The Golden Anniversary in Canvassing], La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review] 42, no. 8 (May 11, 1942): 7, 15; Don F. Neufeld, ed., Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, 2nd ed. (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1996), 11:822, 823.

  5. Lionel Brooking, “En el campo de colportaje sudamericano” [In the Field of South American Canvassing], ARH 70, no. 12 (March 21, 1893): 182; Lionel Brooking, “Abriendo campos en Sudamérica” [Opening Fields in South America], ARH 70, no. 34 (August 22, 1893): 532; Lionel Brooking, “Argentina,” ARH, September 21, 1897, 603, 604; John M. McCarthy,“Ecos desde Sudamérica” [Echoes From South America], The Home Missionary 8, no. 4 (April 1896): 89, 90.

  6. Frank H. Westphal, “Argentina,” ARH, June 15, 1897, 378, 379; John M. McCarthy, “Republica Argentina” [Argentina Republic], ARH, July 6, 1897, 426; Lionel Brooking, “ ‘En peligros de aguas’ en Argentina” [In Water Hazards in Argentina], ARH, June 15, 1897, 379: Frank H. Westphal, “Mission Board Correspondence,” The Home Missionary 9, no. 7 (August 1897): 159.

  7. Lionel Brooking, “Argentina,” ARH, August 10, 1897, 509.

  8. Amaro N. Peverini, Pietro Giovanni, el hombre del destino [Pietro Giovanni, the Man of Destiny] (Libertador San Martín, Entre Ríos: 2012), 52, 53.

  9. Daniel Oscar Plenc, Misioneros en Sudamérica: Pioneros del Adventismo en Latinoamérica [Missionaries in South America: Pioneers of Adventism in Latin America], 2nd ed. (Buenos Aires: South America Spanish Publishing House, 2008), 42–52. Lionel Brooking, “Argentina,” ARH, July 1, 1902, 19; Robert H. Habenicht, “The Medical Work in Argentina,” ARH, July 8, 1902, 14.

  10. See the following articles written by Lionel Brooking:“Noticias de la obra—Sección del Río de la Plata— Desde Inglaterra” [News of the Work—Section of River Plate—From England], La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review], March 1905, 5; “Noticias de Inglaterra” [News From England], La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review], July 1905, 7; “Sanatorio de Caterham—Inglaterra” [Caterham Sanitarium—England], La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review], October 1906, 5; [Untitled], La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review], March 1907, 3; “Cómo protegió Dios a los valdenses en la América del Sur” [How God Protected the Waldenses in South America], La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review], September 1924, 7.

  11. A. S. Rodd, “The Journey’s End,” ARH, July 30, 1942, 23: Edgar Brooks, “Cincuenta años de fiel servicio” [Fifty Years of Faithful Service], La Revista Adventista [Adventist Review] 42, no. 15 (August 24, 1942): 15.

×

Dionisio, Eugenio Di. "Brooking, Lionel (1872–1904)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. January 29, 2020. Accessed February 12, 2025. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=8GGD.

Dionisio, Eugenio Di. "Brooking, Lionel (1872–1904)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. January 29, 2020. Date of access February 12, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=8GGD.

Dionisio, Eugenio Di (2020, January 29). Brooking, Lionel (1872–1904). Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved February 12, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=8GGD.