by Linda Banks
In They Shall See His Face, Linda and Robert Banks have rescued an important and fascinating story from the gathering mists of history and made it available to the larger public. Their careful detective work (as they call it) has given us a story of God’s grace in people’s lives that both inspires and instructs.
Howard A. Snyder, Author of The Problem of Wineskins and Models of the Kingdom et. al., and Director, Wesley Research Centre, Manchester University, UK
This book tells the story of a courageous and passionate missionary and her legacy among the blind in China. The authors’ great achievement is to do this in a way that their own voice seems to disappear and that of Amy Oxley Wilkinson shines through. It is an historical biography grounded in impeccable research, providing insight into the contribution (and colonial prejudices) of Christian mission to social justice at the turn of the 20th century. The prose is beautiful and photographs delightful. The book deserves a wide audience.
Shane Clifton, Professor of Theology, Alphacrucis College, and Honorary Associate, Centre for Disability Research and Policy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney
Linda and Robert Banks’ fascinating account presents Amy Oxley Wilkinson’s life in its vibrant historical, cultural and political contexts. This is missionary biography at its best: rich, real and relevant. The world needs to hear this story of heroism, Christian conviction, and love for the Chinese people. Everyone should be challenged to do good specifically where God and their conscience directs. Highly recommended!
Rev. Dr Wei-Han Kuan, State Director, Church Missionary Society, Victoria
Amy Oxley Wilkinson proves that a young Australian woman can leave a lasting legacy for the poor and disabled. She followed God’s leading at a dangerous time in a foreign culture to meet the needs of children without help and hope. This is a truly inspiring real life story worth reading and retelling.
Dr Russell Clark, AM, formerly Head, Department of Medicine, United Christian Hospital, Kowloon, and Rev. Kay Clark, OAM, CMS Missionaries, Hong Kong
A most uplifting story of Amy Oxley Wilkinson and her amazing ministry at the Blind School in Foochow. One cannot help but be inspired by her life of commitment to mission in China and ministry of love and care. Read this book to be challenged in your faith and renewed in your commitment to the Lord.
Kua Wee Seng, Director, United Bible Societies China Partnership, Singapore
They Shall See His Face is a beautifully written piece on the faith and passion of Amy Oxley Wilkinson. The love that she had for children in China with low vision and blindness is captured perfectly in this historically detailed book. She valued them simply as children, not as children with disabilities. Her compelling story is a guide to anyone working within the health industry and education.
Lauren Rouse, Occupational Therapist and Braille Transcriber, The Statewide Vision Resource Centre, Melbourne
Published by Acorn Press
An imprint of Bible Society Australia
ACN 148 058 306
GPO Box 9874
Sydney NSW 2001
Australia
www.biblesociety.org.au | www.acornpress.net.au
© 2017 Linda and Robert Banks
A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia
Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, no part of this work may be reproduced by electronic or other means without the permission of the publisher.
Editor: Candida Ashford.
Cover design: Belinda Hargrave.
Text layout: Graeme Cogdell.
Printed by Openbook Howden Design & Print.
To our good friend, Andrew Lu,
without whose vision and generosity
this story may never have been written.
Amy Oxley, aged 25.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Notes
Foreword
1. Pioneers in the DNA (1868–1886)
2. Signals of China Calling (1887–1895)
3. The Blind Boy in the Ditch (1896–1900)
4. Surprises of the Heart (1901–1906)
5. A Travelling Sight and Sound Show (1907–1914)
6. The Order of the Golden Grain (1915–1920)
7. From the Far East to the East End (1921–1949)
Afterword
Endnotes
Sources
About the Authors
Acknowledgements
Research and writing a book is a lot like being a detective. It involves accessing various kinds of information, only some available in print, and is dependent on the contribution of many different people. The research, mainly undertaken by Linda, took us to five countries, some more than once, over the best part of a decade, and the writing was done in three different places over a further year.
We would like to acknowledge the following people for providing vital material. Amy’s maternal Australian relatives, Ellen and Alistair Hope, preserved and painstakingly transcribed a collection of family letters and diaries covering the beginning of Amy’s time in China. Amy’s English grandson Peter Hazelton and his daughter Ruth Horne helped fill in details of her post-China years. Ruth has been a vital conversation partner in the writing of the book.
Key documents relating to Amy’s work in China were found in the excellent resources of the Australian National University, especially from the work of Dr Ian Welch; the Church Missionary Society Australia Archives in Sydney; the National Library of Australia in Canberra; Trinity Theological College in Singapore; Hong Kong Baptist University; the Crowther Mission Studies Library in Oxford; the Edward Cadbury Centre at the University of Birmingham, for Church Missionary Society Archives; Fujian Normal University Library, for some historical sources; and Moore Theological College Library, for recordings by Mary Andrews about and by the Fuzhou Blind School Choir.
We are also indebted to George Niu, who gave us valuable help on Chinese idioms, customs and early missionary history; Australian cultural historian Professor David Walker, for his general encouragement and knowledge of early Australia–China political relations; Lauren Rouse of the Royal Society of the Blind, Canberra, and John Burge, local historian at St Paul’s Church, Cobbitty.
Chinese friends who showed us aspects of Amy’s life and world in Fujian Province include Professor Chen Zhaofen and Pastors Chen Lifu, Yu Israel and Kuo Enoch of the historic Flower Lane Church in Fuzhou. The principal, past principal, staff and alumnae of Fuzhou Blind School gave us access to important artifacts and photos, as well as the opportunity to take part in their International White Cane Day celebration. Thanks also to Brian Horne, for his video recording of this event, to Dr Zhang Jihong, our translator for the discussion afterwards, and to Chen Jun’en and Pan Liying Puyang, the author and translator of the short history of the School.
We are deeply grateful for the personal encouragement and financial support arranged by Dr Wei-Han Kuan, State Director of the Church Missionary Society Victoria, through the Keith Cole Publishing Fund, and once again to Mr Andrew Lu for his continuing interest and financial generosity.
It is a delight to be working with Bible Society Australia, our friend Greg Clarke, and once again with Kris Argall, Acorn Press’ deputy editor, in bringing this book to publication.
Linda and Robert Banks
October 2017
Notes
To preserve the historical atmosphere and avoid confusion when reading quotes from primary sources, the older spelling of place names
in China has been retained:
Amoy (Xiamen)
Canton (Guangzhou)
Deng Doi (Dongdai)
Foochow (Fuzhou)
Fukien (Fujian)
Kucheng (Gutian)
Kuliang (Guling)
Lieng Kong (Liangjiang)
Nanking (Nanjing)
Ningpo (Ningbo)
Peking (Beijing)
Swatow (Shantou)
Tientsin (Tianjin)
In addition, imperial rather than metric distance measurements have been used in the main text to correspond with quotations from the time.
The Chinese characters for ‘The Soul-Lighted School’, 院書光靈, have been used to mark section breaks.
Foreword
It was Christmas Eve, 1980, not long after China reopened to the West.
A man, whose family had emigrated from southeast China shortly before the communist revolution, had just returned to Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province. After dining in a downtown restaurant, he started to walk home. It was cold and wet that night, with a wind blowing down from the surrounding mountains.
As he wandered through the historic Three Lanes and Seven Alleys area, the man looked for any reminders of his childhood. Glancing at buildings he used to pass, including where a large church once stood, little remained of an earlier time.
‘How sad,’ he said to himself. As he walked on, he heard an unusual sound carried by the winter wind. Someone further down the street was playing the flute to a tune he knew well:
Joy to the world! The Lord is come.
Let earth receive her King!
As he approached, in the half-light he could just make out an aged, blind beggar dressed in rags. He recognised the man’s face immediately.
‘Excuse me,’ he said in local dialect. ‘I am the son of Pastor Ding, who used to be well known in this area. You might not know me, but surely you remember my late father?’
The old man lowered his flute, looked bewildered for a moment, then shook his head decisively. ‘No, sir. I am a humble beggar, blind and useless throughout my life. I am the refuse of this socialist state and a burden to the people. I swear that I don’t know of any pastor or foreigner. I am sorry.’
‘But how can this be?’ the other man said. ‘I remember you. I heard you playing and singing in the Blind Boys Band when I was a child. Weren’t you one of Mrs Amy Wilkinson’s students? In fact, one of the nine who travelled with her to England?’
Starting to utter something, the blind man suddenly fell silent. The deep furrows on his face and bent frame told of the hardships he had endured over the years.
Overcome by a flash of inspiration, the pastor’s son started to sing tentatively in English,
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found …
The old man unexpectedly began to cry and through his tears joined in the song – open faced, sounding like a young man, and with the voice of an angel.
… Was blind, but now I see!
The two embraced each other as one and held each other for a long time into the night.1
CHAPTER 1
Pioneers in the DNA (1868–1886)
In 1974, an English teenage girl rose to her feet to deliver a short talk. It was for her Girl Guides’ Commonwealth Knowledge badge. Following conversations with her grandmother, Isabel, Ruth had been investigating her family’s links with early Australia. She decided to start with Rev. Samuel Marsden (1765–1838) and Lieutenant John Oxley (1784–1828), whom she had been told were ‘two very important people’ in the early years of the Australian colony. She began:
My great, great, great grandfather Samuel was born in Yorkshire, the son of a blacksmith. As a young man he decided to go into the ministry and, with the help of the reformer William Wilberforce, was given a scholarship to study theology at Magdalene College, Cambridge University. Enrolling there in 1790, like a number of other students at that time, he was influenced by a visionary clergyman, Rev. Charles Simeon. As a result of this connection, in 1794 Samuel was appointed Assistant Chaplain to the colony of New South Wales, just six years after it was founded. His wife, Elizabeth, travelled with him, and the first of their eight children, Anne, was born on ship.
As well as holding church services for officers and convicts, Samuel was appointed a magistrate. Though convicts described him as ‘the flogging parson’, he saw himself as upholding the law and moral tone of the society. After becoming senior Chaplain in 1798, and later Rector of the newly built St John’s Parramatta, he was given a land grant 20 miles west of Sydney. Since clergy had to earn some of their own income, within a decade his success in breeding sheep led Governor King to commend him as the most practical farmer in the colony.
When he went back to England from 1807 to1809, my ancestor wrote an important report on the needs of New South Wales. This talked about the poor treatment of female convicts, the necessity of educating colonists, and the commercial benefits of developing a wool industry. Both Government and the King were interested in this proposal.
For some time Samuel had wanted to begin missionary work in nearby New Zealand. In preparing for this, he made friends with a Maori chief and learned the language. In 1814, supported by the Church Missionary Society, he bought a large boat and on Christmas Day held the first Christian service on a beach in the Bay of Islands. Over seven visits during the next 25 years, Samuel helped bring peace between warring tribes, spoke out against infanticide and started a training school for Maori ministers. He even recruited and paid for tradesmen to teach the Maoris how to earn their own living.
Back in Australia Samuel was appointed to important positions in the public service, including work amongst orphans and employment for women. He helped set up the first local branches of the Church Missionary Society and British and Foreign Bible Society. My ‘very great’ granny, Elizabeth, helped manage his many enterprises, particularly when he was travelling.1
1.1 Samuel Marsden and John Oxley.
Next, my great, great grandfather John Oxley was born at Kirkham Abbey, also in Yorkshire, in 1784. He was just 15 when he joined the Royal Navy. Three years later he embarked on a huge adventure when his ship the ‘Buffalo’ sailed to Australia to carry out coastal surveying in unknown waters. From 1806 to 1809, acting as the Governor’s agent, he arranged the shipping of goods to England to help raise investment in the colony. In return for this, John was granted 600 acres, later increased to 1,000, near Camden, south of Sydney, which he called ‘Kirkham’ after his birthplace.
John was so successful in his work that in 1812 he was appointed Surveyor-General of the whole colony. Over the next decade, he led several physically exhausting, at times life-threatening, expeditions. Travelling for months on end, he and his party explored the plains across the world-famous Blue Mountains west of Sydney and traced the course of four river systems. Commissioned by Governor Macquarie to find more land to settle the increasing number of convicts, he sailed up the coast and, with the help of some aborigines, chose the site that today is Brisbane, capital of Queensland.
Unfortunately ill health prevented John from further exploration. Deeply interested in improving the quality of life in his new homeland, he involved himself in the work of the Male and Female Orphanages, the British and Foreign Bible Society and a number of fledgling educational institutions. As well as these, he was appointed to be a Magistrate and later one of the first five members of the Legislative Council.
In 1822 John married Emma Norton, an educated woman originally from a wealthy family in Sussex. They had two sons, John Norton and Henry Molesworth. Because of the hardships her husband suffered as an explorer, he was only 44 years old when, sadly, he died at Kirkham, surprisingly leaving very little money. Emma was left to raise and provide for her two very young children, aided by a subsequent Government grant of 5000 acres to them in recognition of John’s achievements.2
1.2 The main branches of Am
y Oxley’s family tree.
Whenever Ruth visited her paternal grandparents’ home, she was intrigued by an oriental watercolour, depicting a tea ceremony, and an accompanying tea table with mother-of-pearl inlay. Though never allowed to touch it, she was also impressed by an exotic Chinese medal. From her childhood, Ruth had been told that all these objects – as well as her unusual middle name – belonged to her Australian great grandmother, Amy, a descendant of Samuel Marsden and John Oxley.
院書光靈
The early evening of Monday 13 January 1868 was still, hot and humid in Camden, as the seventh child of John Norton and Harriet Oxley was born at ‘Kirkham’. Amy Isabel Oxley’s first years were spent in this family home, approximately 30 miles southwest of Sydney, described as ‘the most valuable country estate in the County of Cumberland.’3 Built in 1816 by her paternal grandparents, John and Emma Oxley, ‘Kirkham’ was a large stately home with at least ten bedroom apartments for family and guests. Its spacious loft was the place where Rev. Samuel Marsden had held the first church service in the district. ‘Kirkham’ was hedged around by beautifully sculpted gardens, with a variety of European trees and shrubs. The property included several other substantial workers’ cottages, a state-of-the-art steam flour mill, double-storied stables, a productive dairy and a boutique vineyard which produced fine wine for export.
John Norton Oxley sold ‘Kirkham’ in the early 1870s to James White, politician and long-term member of the Australian Jockey Club, who established a stud farm for his racing stable there. A new house, designed by architect John Horbury Hunt, named ‘Camelot’, was built in 1888. Folklore has it that this was financed by White’s horse Chester winning the Melbourne Cup in 1877. Recently ‘Camelot’ featured in Baz Luhrmann’s epic film Australia and is the main location, ‘Ash Park’, in the popular Australian TV series A Place Called Home.