The Life & Legacy of Mama Ruth Elton (1933–2025)
Ruth Elton died yesterday at 91 in her home in Ilesa in Osun.
Her story is one of rare devotion, coming to Nigeria as a child in 1937 & never really leaving.
She gave up citizenship, comfort, and family to make Nigeria her home.
She was a three year old only child when she arrived in Ilesa with her parents.
Her father Pastor Sydney G. Elton, later aka Pa Elton had left England to support the ministry of Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola whose great revival had swept through Yorubaland from Ilesa in 1930.
For a variety of reasons, Ilesa had since around 1910/1912 been home to a small but vibrant British community; missionaries, colonial officers, miners, representatives of commercial houses.
It was to this world that the Eltons arrived, to anchor and support Babalola’s ministry.
While Babalola was the fiery prophet and preacher, Pa Elton offered teaching, discipleship, and continuous mentoring to new converts.
All the while, little Ruth grew up Nigerian in tongue, soil, and spirit.
She spent a few years in England at a stage in vocations school.
As her father mentored new church leaders like Benson Idahosa, E. A. Adeboye, David Oyedepo & others in the '60s & '70s, Ruth now an adult quietly charted her path of service.
Her mission would be health & stemming maternal deaths in places like Egbe, Okene, Koton-Karfe & areas.
She also taught sewing, cared for children, and gave infants a better chance at life and preaching against harmful practices like infant force feeding.
The Ebira people called her Omotere; “the one who does good.”
She eventually retired to the family house in Ilesa.
By this time, her parents had passed on.
Her mother, Hannah passed in 1983 and her father in 1987. Both were buried in Ilesa. She’s expected to be buried beside them in Ilesa.
In 1975, Ruth renounced her British citizenship as there was no provision for dual citizenship then.
She naturalised as a full Nigerian.
Her life became rooted here.
She knew danger too. She was once beaten unconscious by robbers.
But nothing broke her resolve.
She kept forging ahead.
She never married, never left, never stopped.
A child of English missionaries, she herself became wholly Nigerian in identity and service.
On Sept 7, 2024, she turned 90.
Church leaders gathered in her home in Ilesa to honour a frail but radiant Mama Ruth.
Just short of a year later, she entered into glory.
From a little girl stepping off the boat in 1937, to a Nigerian saint in 2025, Ruth Elton’s story is one of faith, sacrifice, and the courage to belong.
She was certainly the last surviving member of Ilesa’s once vibrant British community.
May her memory be blessed. 🕯️
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