Forgotten Souls: A Social History of the Hong Kong Cemetery

Chapter 10: Missionaries

In this first period one cannot help but wonder at the missionary fervour that led men to bring their wives and children to China, sacrificing their lives on the altar of their missions with a seeming lack of concern which to us appears irresponsible. Three groups of missionaries stand out in the early years of the colony as being of particular significance. They are the London Missionary Society which under Rev. James Legge founded the English Nonconformist Union Church, the American missionaries, and Karl Gutzlaff’s Christian Mission which led to the arrival in Hong Kong of the Basel Mission, the Berlin missionaries and the Mission of the Rhenish Church. English Nonconformist Union Church Missionaries To understand the background of these early missionaries in Hong Kong one must look back briefly to Dr. Robert Morrison and Rev. William Milne, the two men who inspired so many. They had been sent out in 1807 by the London Missionary Society (L.M.S.) to be the first Protestant missionaries to China. The Nonconformists, including the Presbyterians, the Congregationalists and the Baptists, had united in Britain under the umbrella of the L.M.S. in order to pool their resources and send missionaries into the field. Dr. Morrison worked in the East for twenty-seven years ‘extending the kingdom of the Blessed Redeemer’. 1 Among the considerable achievements of Robert Morrison and William Milne were the founding of the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca, the compilation and publication of a first dictionary of the Chinese language and the translation of the Bible into Chinese. Morrison lived and worked for many years as interpreter and translator to the British East India Company in Canton and was known and admired by the British merchants, especially the Nonconformist Scots like William Jardine. He died in Macau in 1834 aged fifty-two and is buried in the Protestant Cemetery there. 2 Chapter 10 Missionaries Lim_txt.indd 214 28/12/2010 4:15 PM Missionaries 215 In the following year, Morrison’s son, John Robert, and a group of friends and admirers among the foreign community in Canton set up the Morrison Educational Society (M.E.S.) with the aim of founding schools where Chinese boys could learn the English language and gain a grounding in Christianity in order to lay the axe to the root of these long standing and deep-rooted evils (heathenism and idol worship) to revive, develop and cultivate long dormant mental energies by introducing as many youths as possible to the sources of moral elevation that are found in English Literature and Science. It was thought that, within a space of not many years, such schools would exert a great influence in overcoming native prejudices and clear the way for a more cordial intercourse between the Chinese and foreigners … The diffusion of knowledge by means of schools … will disabuse the people in their notions of the outside barbarians; since the exclusive wisdom in which they pride themselves must then stand the test of an enlightenment their fathers never dreamt of. 3 In 1838 a second society was founded, the Medical Missionary Society (M.M.S.), which would follow in the footsteps of Dr. Morrison and Dr. Colledge to open medical clinics for the Chinese such as they had opened in Macau, and so link missionary work with Western medicine. Free medical attention would be provided so that the gospel could be preached to patients at a time when they would be prepared to listen, thus overcoming the hostility of the people. The yearly subscriptions paid by the merchant members of the M.E.S and the M.M.S. would enable them to carry out their mission. Both societies received grants of land in Hong Kong as early as February 1842, and Sir Henry Pottinger became their patron. Together they started to build 10.1. Robert Morrison and his Chinese assistants engaged in translating the Bible, after Chinnery. (By courtesy of Martyn Gregory, cat. 79, p. 29.) Lim_txt.indd 215 28/12/2010 4:15 PM Forgotten Souls 216 a large house on Morrison Hill in Wan Chai. Dr. Benjamin Hobson, who had been sent out from Britain by the London Missionary Society, opened a clinic and hospital at the foot of the hill. Rev. Samuel R. Brown moved the M.E.S. school from Macau into the purpose-built house on Morrison Hill. Brown, who had been recruited by the...