Charles Beckwith: The English 'Great Benefactor' of the Waldensians and the LDS Missionaries (1789–1862)

Charles Beckwith (1789–1862) was an English gentleman who lost a leg at the Battle of Waterloo (1815) and then devoted the rest of his life to the Waldensian valleys of northern Italy, where he became the Waldensians' 'great benefactor,' founding schools and seeking to renew their ancient faith. When Latter-day Saint missionaries arrived in the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1849–51, Brother Beckwith—whose name, Brigham Young's emissary reported, 'has an almost magical effect among the Protestants'—was not hostile to them, and the way was opened for a number of Waldensian converts to gather to Utah. His life is a faith-promoting witness of the Lord's hand preparing, through a sympathetic non-Latter-day Saint benefactor, the way for the Waldensian remnant of Israel to hear the restored gospel and gather to Zion.