Fonds F3659 - William J. Mortimore fonds

Rev. W. J. Mortimore was born in Exeter, Ontario October 8, 1876. Graduating from Victoria College, he was ordained by the London Conference of the Methodist Church in 1902. He volunteered with several other young men in response to an appeal from the Foreign Missions Board to establish work in eight walled cities in West China. He was first appointed to Kiating, then Penghsien and Chungchow areas between 1902 and 1920. From 1920 on he was the Secretary-Treasurer of the West China Mission and lived most of that time in Chengtu. In 1927 he remaned behind in Chengtu when anti-foreign feeling again broke across the land and missionaries as well as doctors were evacuated to safety to down river ports. He returned to Canada in the fall of 1928 and was awarded a Doctorate of Divinity by Victoria College, and accepted pastoral charges in Auburn and Oakland. In 1938, following semi-retirement, he assisted in St. Clair United, Toronto and in Erskine United and Victoria Hospital in London until his full retirement in 1953. Mortimore died November 12, 1972.