Showing 28 results

People and organizations
Person · 1896-1934

Harvey W. Becking (1896-1934) was a missionary to China with the Presbyterian Church in Canada, and the United Church of Canada. He was born in Bruce County, Ontario in 1896. After returning from overseas, where he served with the Canadian Forces, he was appointed as a missionary of the Presbyterian Church in Canada in April, 1921. That same year, he married Clementine Isabel Macpherson and the couple were designated to the South China mission. Mr. Becking was appointed Principal of the Boys' Boarding School at Kongmoon and held that position until his withdrawal from the mission field in November, 1934. After resigning from the mission field in 1936, he was a teacher at Long Branch, Ontario.

Family · 1882-1978

Rev. Charles “Charlie” Alfred Bridgman (1882-1978) was a missionary in West China who served there for thirty-five years. He was born in Winona, Ontario on March 20, 1882. He graduated from Victoria College in 1910. In 1912, he was ordained by the Methodist church and was appointed as a missionary in West China. He arrived in West China in 1913 and thereafter specialized in rural work where he ministered and also introduced new types of fruits and vegetables to the region. On June 20, 1917, he married Margaret Jean Modeland, a missionary nurse who specialized in child welfare. They had three children: Christy Jean, Donald Charles, and Elizabeth Ruth. He retired from missionary work in 1948 and returned to his hometown of Winona.

1887-

Muriel Brown (nee Hockey) received a Bachelor of Arts from Victoria College. In 1912 she served as the Assistant Superintendent of the National Training School, Toronto. Then, having been specially trained for educational work, she went to China under the Woman’s Missionary Society in 1913. She carried on the work of the school for evangelists’ wives, and taught in the Canadian School for Missionaries’ Children, where for a time she acted as matron. She also worked for a time teaching English in the refugee University of Nanking in Chengtu. The Browns returned from China in 1942.

Person · 1926-2006

Rev. William Lemuel ("Lem") Burnham was born in Summerberry, Saskatchewan. He moved to Vancouver in 1945 and studied theology (Union College) and social work (University of British Columbia). He was ordained by BC Conference in 1954. From 1955 to 1973, Burnham studied and worked in Hong Kong. He returned to Vancouver in 1974 and served the Chinese United Church until his retirement in 1985.

Chan, Agnes, 1906-1962
Person · 1906-1962

Agnes Chan (Ah Fung) was born in China. She came to Victoria, B.C., as a youth, and entered the Oriental Home and School. The Women's Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church provided financial support for her to attend the Women's College Hospital in Toronto, from which she graduated in 1923. Agnes Chan moved to Foshan, China, where she was appointed Assistant Matron, then Superintendent of Nurses at the Wesleyan Methodist Girls' School hospital (1924-1938). This was followed by several years working at an orphanage in Wuchow.

Cheung, Victoria, 1897-1966
Person · 1897-1966

Victoria (Toy Mea) Cheung (Chung) was born in Victoria. Her family were members of the Chinese Presbyterian Church in Victoria, but because of the family's poverty, she was raised largely by the Oriental Home and School. The Presbyterian Women's Missionary Society sponsored her to attend Medical College at the University of Toronto, beginning in 1917. Dr. Cheung spent her career serving at Marion Barclay Hospital for women and children in Jiangmen, working mainly in gynaecology and pediatrics. She remained there during the Japanese occupation and after the Korean War.

Copland, E. Bruce, 1901-1989
Person · 1901-1989

Edward Bruce Copland, (1901-1989) was an ordained United Church missionary and administrator. He studied at McGill University, United Theological College (Montreal), and in Edinburgh and in Paris, earning the degrees of M.A. and D.D. He served at the Honan Mission in China during 1922-1926 and 1931-1942. He was the Executive Secretary of the Church of Christ in China from 1942 to 1951, and secretary for missionary personnel for the National Council of Churches of Christ (U.S.A.) during the early 1950s. He taught school in Taiwan from 1929 to 1931, and was appointed Associate General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Formosa in 1957.

Hale, Annie Helen, d.1982
Person · d. 1982

Annie Helen Hale (d. 1982) trained for 3 years at the City Hospital in Hamilton. She had post-graduate work at the Presbyterian Hospital in Newark, New York and then set sail for China as a missionary. En route to China, she met fellow missionary Frederick John Reed and they married in November, 1921. They returned home from 1926-1929 due to growing agitations in China. In 1929 they returned and went to Kiating, then were transferred to Tzeliutsing in 1934 where they worked at the Mission Middle Schools and Nurses Training School until 1948. They returned to Canada in 1949 and Anne died in 1982. The children of Frederick and Annie were Dorothy, Newton, Donald, Elinor May and Malcolm. All of the children were born in China, some attending the Canadian School for Missionaries Children in Chengdu, and some Llewellyn Hall (Home for Missionaries Children) in Oshawa, ON.

Hambley, Laura H., 1877-1951
Person · 1877-1951

Laura Hannah Hambley (1877-1951) was a Methodist and United Church of Canada missionary to West China, 1904-1943. Hambley was born on March 16, 1877 in Port Perry, Ontario. She graduated from the Toronto Normal School in 1896, and later attended the Methodist National Training School from 1903-1904. She had teaching experience in both Ontario and New York City before she was appointed by the Women's Missionary Society to Chengtu, West China in 1904. After Chinese language instruction, she taught at a middle school. Following that assignment she was relocated to a school in Jenshow (1908-1910). While on furlough in 1911, she travelled across Canada on a speaking tour promoting WMS work. Upon her return to China in 1912, she oversaw the planning and construction of the Tzeliutsing Girls' Middle School, where she taught until 1942. Illness caused her to return to Canada in 1943. She retired to Winnipeg, but continued to travel the country for speaking engagements. She died December 4, 1951.

Hart, Virgil C., 1840-1904
Person · 1840-1904

Virgil Chittenden Hart (1840-1904) was a founder of the West China mission of The Methodist Church of Canada. He was born in 1840 in Jefferson County, New York State. He graduated in 1865, then was sent to China under the Missionary Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He worked for two years at Fuzhou, then he was sent to establish and superintend a mission in Central China, at Kin-Kiang [Jin Jiang] where he remained for 20 years. In 1887 he was sent by the Missionary Board to the western province of Szechuan [Sichuan]. In 1889 he took a leave and returned to Canada and settled in Burlington, Ontario. In 1890, he was appointed Superintendent of the new mission to West China. In 1891 he established a school and hospital in the capital, Chengtu [Chengdu]. He also established the Canadian Mission Press while in West China. In 1896, he returned to Canada. He retired in 1900, and died in 1904. During his career, he published two books: "West China" and "The Temple and the Sage." Hart Memorial College at West China Union University is named in his honour. He was married to Adeline Gilliland Hart.

Person · 1879-1912

Arthur Hockin, Jr (1879-1912) was a missionary to China. He was the son of Arthur Hockin (1851-1932), a Methodist minister in Nova Scotia. He and his wife Lily were living in China when he contacted and succumed to typhus in 1912, two years after the birth of their only child, Katharine Hockin.

Person

Katharine Hockin (1910-1993) was a missionary, teacher, author, and administrator in the United Church of Canada during her long career. Born to missionary parents in China, she was educated there and in Canada, the United States and India, receiving her Doctor of Education degree at Columbia University (1948). Hockin served as a mission teacher to Natives at Ahousaht, Vancouver Island (1933-36), was Maritime Secretary for the Student Christian Movement (1937-1939), and undertook two stints as a mission teacher and administrator in China between 1939 and 1951. In the latter year she returned to Toronto, and in 1952 began teaching Religious Education and Missions at the United Church Training School. In 1958 she left the school for travel and study in India, where she obtained a Divinity degree at United Theological College, Bangalore. Returning to Toronto she secured appointment as World Mission Visitor with the Student Christian Movement, staying there from 1960 until 1964. In the latter year she accepted the post of Dean of Students at the Canadian School of Missions and Ecumenical Institute in Toronto, retiring from that institution in 1976. In addition to her teaching work, Hockin participated actively in the United Church of Canada, serving on committees, particularly with the Division of World Outreach, and was nominated as Moderator of the Church in 1977. She subsequently served as an Advisor to Lois Wilson, the first woman Moderator of the denomination.

Hockin, Lily, 1880-1974
Person · 1880-1974

Lily Howie Hockin (1880-1974) was a missionary in Kiating, China when her daughter, Katharine, was born there in 1910. Following the death of her husband (1912), Lily Hockin returned to Canada, and was subsequently appointed to China under the auspices of the Woman's Missionary Society of the Methodist Church of Canada (1913). She remained there until 1927 when illness forced her return to Canada. In 1933 she went for a third time to China, remaining until 1946. She then moved to New York with her daughter who was studying at Columbia University. In 1948 Katharine Hockin returned to China as a missionary, and Lily Hockin moved to Vancouver to live with her mother and sisters. In 1960 she moved to Toronto to live with her daughter Katharine, remaining there until her death.

Person · 1915-2002

Rev. Dr. Thomas Edwin Floyd Honey (1915-2002) was a minister, missionary and administrator with The United Church of Canada. He was born in Wooler, Ontario. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Victoria College, University of Toronto in 1937, and was ordained in 1940. He received his Master of Sacred Theology from Union Theological Seminary, New York in 1942, then was minister for four years in Baltimore, Ontario. He was a missionary to China from 1947-1951 as part of the staff of West China Union Theological College. He returned to Canada in 1952 due to the Communist takeover. In 1953 he became Associate Secretary of the Board of Overseas Mission of The United Church and in 1955 was named Secretary of the newly formed Board of World Missions. From 1965-1968 he was Secretary for Mission and Service in the New York office of the World Council of Churches. He also spent two years as National Coordinator for World Conference on Religion and Peace and was General Secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches, beginning in 1968. He was chaplain for a time at Riverdale Hospital in Toronto.

Person · 1876-1975

Charles Julius Pasmore Jolliffe (1876-1965) was a Methodist/United Church missionary to China in the first half of the twentieth century. He was born in 1876 in Paisley, Ontario. In 1883, he moved with his family to Rockwood where he farmed with his father until the age of nineteen. He attended Victoria University, where he became interested in the Student Volunteer Movement, and graduated in 1904. The same year that he was ordained by the Methodist Church, 1906, he also married Gertrude Bigelow, and they went to China together as missionaries. Rev. and Mrs. Jolliffe opened the Canadian Methodist station at Luchow. From 1922 to 1937, Rev. Jolliffe was in charge of the station at Jenshow. During this period, he also taught for a few months at a United Church college in Japan and served for two years as minister at Erin and Hillsburgh, Ontario. In 1937, they returned to Canada, serving at Glen Williams, Barton Stone-Trinity and Ponsonby. After retirement, they returned to Rockwood where he died in 1965. The Jolliffes had five children: Edward, Aimee, Richard, Paul and Frances.

Person · b.1881

Gertrude Bigelow Jolliffe (b. 1881) was a missionary to China. She married Charles Julius Pasmore Jolliffe in 1906 and they went to China together. Rev. and Mrs. Jolliffe opened the Canadian Methodist station at Luchow. From 1922 to 1937, Rev. Jolliffe was in charge of the station at Jenshow. During this period, he also taught for a few months at a United Church college in Japan and served for two years as minister at Erin and Hillsburgh, Ontario. In 1937, they returned to Canada.

1879-1976

Lena M. Dunfield, later Jolliffe (1879-1974) was a missionary to China with the Women's Missionary Society of the Methodist Church of Canada. She married Richard Orlando Jolliffe in 1905, and together they pioneered missions in the salt wells area of Tzeliutsing. They also produced a large volume of Christian literature and the monthly magazine, Christian Hope. They retired in 1945 to Rockwood, Ontario.

Person · 1874-1959

Richard Orlando Jolliffe (1874-1959) was a Methodist/United Church missionary to China in the first half of the twentieth century. Richard Jolliffe was born in Bruce County, Ontario, in 1874. He studied at Victoria University, and served briefly in Alberta for the Methodist Home Missions Board, 1903-1904. He was appointed to the West China Mission in 1904. He married Lena Dunfield, a Woman's Missionary Society missionary in China, in 1905. Together they pioneered missions in the salt wells area of Tzeliutsing. In 1922, Richard Jolliffe was appointed to work for the Mission Press in Chengtu. He and his wife produced a large volume of Christian literature and the monthly magazine Christian Hope. They retired in 1945 to Rockwood, Ontario. Richard Jolliffe died in 1959, Lena Jolliffe in 1976.

Person · 1879-1961

Mary Letitia Lamb (1879-1961) was a Methodist/United Church missionary to China. She was born in St. Andrew's East, Quebec, attended McGill University part-time as a young adult, and was active in young people's work in the Methodist Church. In 1920 she volunteered to be Matron of the Canadian School for Missionary Children in West China; she learned the Chinese language and in 1926 was appointed by the Woman's Missionary Society to evangelistic work. She returned to Canada in 1941.

Person · 1859-1890

Thomas Alfred Large was born in 1859. After his ordination, he became a missionary to Japan. He was murdered there in 1890 by burglars when he tried to defend the Toyo Eiwa Gakko girls' school in Tokyo. His wife, the former Eliza Spencer, was also injured in the incident, and she remained in Tokyo with their daughter Kate until 1895.

Person · b.1872

Isabel Ogilvy Leslie was born in 1872. She was a missionary to China with The Methodist Church of Canada, then after union, The United Church of Canada, alongside her husband, Percy C. Leslie beginning in 1920.

Person · 1871-1965

Dr. Percy C. Leslie (1871-1965) was a medical missionary to China with The Presbyterian Church in Canada. He was born in 1871 in Montreal, Quebec. He graduated in Medicine at McGill University in 1896, and did post-graduate work in Scotland until 1901. He was appointed to North Honan, China in May, 1897 and remained there until he resigned in 1926. He died in 1965. He was married to Isabel Ogilvy.

Person · 1915-1989

Norman Hall MacKenzie (1915-1989) was a United Church minister, an overseas missionary and a church administrator. He was born in North Honan, China, the son of missionaries. He married Dorothy MacKenzie in 1943; she was the child of missionaries and a registered nurse. He served as a missionary in China, India and Nigeria. Mackenzie served as Personnel Secretary, Board of World Mission (1966-1969), and later with the Division of Mission in Canada of the United Church and served pastorates in Ontario. During the years 1969-1972, Mackenzie served as pastor of the Rama Reserve & Mission [Chippewas of Rama First Nation], near Orillia, Ontario.

Person · 1900-1991

Robert Baird McClure (1900-1991) was an overseas medical missionary and the first lay Moderator of the United Church of Canada. He was born in Portland, Oregon, the son of Dr. William McClure, a Presbyterian medical missionary to China. McClure spent most of his childhood in China. He graduated in medicine from the University of Toronto in 1922 and returned to China as a Medical Missionary in 1924. He married Amy Hislop in China in 1926 after having met her as a student in Canada. After marriage in Tianjin, the McClures returned to Qinyang. They returned to Tianjin less than a year later as a civil war had broken out. McClure then relocated to a Presbyterian mission hospital in Taipei. In 1930-1931, McClure travelled to the UK, then Toronto to earn his FRCS degree. He and his family moved back to Qinyang in late 1931. In 1937, McClure became the Field Director for the International Red Cross. Throughout 1938-1945 he organized convoys of medical supplies into China via Burma, and other medical relief operations in remote locations. In 1946, he opened a United Church mission hospital in Hankou and spent two years there. In 1948 he returned home to Canada. McClure also served in Gaza, Palestine (1950-1954), Ratlam, India (1954-1967). He returned to Canada and was elected the 23rd Moderator of The United Church of Canada in 1968. After his term as Moderator, McClure continued to do volunteer medical work in Sarawak, Malaysia, Peru, in the West Indies and in Zaire. McClure became a companion of the Order of Canada in 1971, and a member of the Order of Ontario in 1990. McClure died in 1991.

Peters, Eunice, 1898-1991
Person · 1898-1991

Eunice Peters was a Methodist and United Church of Canada missionary to West China, 1923-1948. Peters was born on September 10, 1898 in Fredericton, New Brunswick. She was educated at the Provincial Normal School and taught in New Brunswick before attending the Methodist National Training School in Toronto. In 1923 she was appointed by the Women's Missionary Society of the Methodist Church to West China. She received language instruction at Fowchow and taught at the missionary school there until 1926. Records indicated that she was assigned to teach at schools in several different cities during her time in China: Kiating (1926-1928); Fowchow (1929-1930); Chungking (1930-1932); Junghsien (1932-1936); Chungking (1938-1941), where she also carried out urban social work; Chengtu (1941-1947), and finally Kiating (1948) where she was responsible for evangelistic work. Between 1944 and 1946 she studied at the Hartford Theological Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut, where she received a Bachelor of Religious Education. In 1948 she returned to Canada, where she was eventually posted to the Chinese United Church Mission in Victoria, British Columbia from 1952 to 1962. She formally retired to Victoria in 1964. Eunice Peters died on February 5, 1991 at the age of 92.

Person · 1891-1979

Frederick John Reed (28 October, 1891-21 April, 1979) was born in Lindsay, Ontario to parents William Thomas Reed and Emma Smale. He was accepted as a probationer by Lindsay Presbytery in 1912 and was a student minister at Dalrymple for the year. In 1913 he entered Victoria College (Toronto) where he took Arts and Theology concurrently and received a B.A. in 1917. In 1917, he joined the Signal Corps as a private and in September went overseas as a corporal with the Canadian Fifth Divisional signals company. In England, he acted as an instructor in Signals and P.T. and after the armistice was a tutor in the Canadian Army School at Rhyll until he was discharged in March, 1919 and returned to Canada. In September 191 he re-entered Victoria, where he finished his B.D. in Theology and at the College of Education gained a High School Teacher’s certificate and diploma in physical education. He was appointed in April 1920 by the Methodist Church to work as an educational missionary in Szechuan, China. During his voyage to China he met fellow missionary Annie H. Hale, a trained nurse, and they married in November, 1921. In China, Reed was principal of Penghsien Junior Middle School. They returned home from 1926-1929 due to growing agitations in China. Reed taught and preached during that time in Gibson Pastoral Charge. In 1929 they returned and went to Kiating where Reed engaged in evangelistic and educational work. In 1934 they were transferred to Tzeluitsing where they worked at the Mission Middle Schools and Nurses Training School until 1948. They returned to Canada in 1949 and Frederick worked in Dalrymple until 1956, having resigned from the Mission Board in 1953. From 1954-1961 he was at Hampton Pastorate. In 1961 they moved to Sunderland and worked at Almonds Pastorate. Frederick died in 1977, and Annie in 1982.

CAN · Person · 1880-1941

Edward Wilson Wallace (1880-1941) was a missionary to China, and Chancellor and President of Victoria University. The son of Francis Huston Wallace, Edward Wilson Wallace was born in Cobourg, Ontario, 1880, studied at Victoria University and Columbia University, and was appointed by the Methodist Church to the China mission field in 1906. He managed mission schools, taught at West China Union University, and was appointed General Secretary of the West China Educational Union in 1912 and of the China Church Educational Association in 1921. He served as Chancellor and President of Victoria University from 1929 until his death in 1941.

Wallace, Rose, -1924
Person · -1924

Rose Wallace was the wife of missionary Edward Wilson Wallace. She died of typhoid fever and pneumonia in Shanghai in 1924.