A Brief History

The Elwandle Guest House is the home of legendary Drs David and his son Dr Samuel Wilson Hynd. Dr David Hynd was a professor of mathematics and a logician at the University of Glasgow in Scotland when God touched his heart with compassion for the Swazi people. Dr David saw the although Swaziland was a British protectorate there was no health care for the ordinary people who were dying of treatable diseases like malaria, typhoid and dysentery.

He contacted the British Foreign Office in London making them aware of this situation that needed to be corrected. They sponsored him to complete a degree in medicine then a specialty Diploma in tropical diseases. He came to Swaziland in 1926 with his young wife Rev Kanema Hynd (the third woman ever to be ordained a minister in Scotland) with their daughter Isabel and their infant son Samuel.

Dr David Hynd founded and built the current day Regional Referral Hospital in Manzini (then known as Bremersdorp) opened in June 1926, the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital. And later established the Nazarene Nursing College training the very first Swazi nurses. Kanema, his wife established the first school in her kitchen, later opening a primary school. She was then joined by her friend from Scotland, Ms Margaret Latter, who helped establish a high school and Nazarene Teachers Training College training the first Swazi teachers. Together the couple used the front verandah of their home to start the Church of the Nazarene, a denomination started by Rev Kanema's father in the United Kingdom.

Their son Dr Samuel Hynd accompanied his father as he founded clinics, churches and schools throughout the country. At the age of 13 he was born again and felt called if God to follow in his fathers footsteps. He schooled in Bremersdorp (current day Manzini) then in St Marks school in Mbabane before going to the university of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg to study medicine and specialized in medicine and surgery in the university of Glasgow, Scotland, He followed up with a postgraduate Diploma in Tropical Diseases and Hygiene before returning to Swaziland in 1950 to work along side his father serving the Swazi nation.

Dr Samuel Hynd married Rosemarie Ballard in 1951 and had a family of three daughters.

Both doctors were awarded with honorary degrees by the University of Swaziland, the honorary award of Commander of the a British Empire by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II respectively and the highest award of Commander in Swaziland by King Sobhuza II and King Mswati III. Dr Samuel was an elected Member of Parliament and appointed by King Sobhuza II to serve the cabinet of Swaziland as Minister of Health.

The Elwandle Guest House serves to share some of their legendary lives and relics but mostly to share the almost one century of family hospitality. The home is a place of peace and grace that will enrich and enliven every soul who rests in the natural beauty of Swaziland overlooking the city of Manzini and the mauve and blue distance hills of the Lubombo mountains to the east across the picturesque African Lowveld.