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Bilkert, Henry A. (d. 1929)
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1929 Jan 30 p. 1
Birth date:
text of obituary:
MISSIONARY SLAIN BY FANATICAL ARAB WARRIORS
Basra, Irak [sic Iraq], Jan. 22. — While British air force machines and armored cars scoured the desert along the Irak-Koweit [sic Iraq-Kuwait] frontier, the Rev. Henry A. Bilkert, American missionary who was slain by Wahabi raiders yesterday, was buried in the civil cemetery alongside the great war cemetery here.
Although an active search for the raiders continued all day no trace of them had been found by tonight.
In the party of Americans who were ambushed by the Wahabis as they werer traveling in two automobiles on the edge of the desert, was Charles R. Crane, former American minister to China, and it is recalled that when Mr. Crane visited Jedah in 1926, Ibn Saud gave him the royal apartments, sent his son Feisal to welcome and entertain him and also telegraphed his greetings daily.
The Rev. Bilkert was secretary of the Arabian mission of the Dutch Reformed church in America. He first went to the Near East in 1917 and was considered well-informed on questions there. His wife and three children lived at Basrah.
Besides having been minister to China, Crane played a prominent part in the presidential election of 1912. His home is in Chicago.
