by Linda Banks
Through this whole period, George and Amy were so busy with their respective responsibilities that they often struggled to find time together. For this reason, they decided to rent a holiday house in Kuliang. They found one in Ox Fort Road and escaped to it whenever they had opportunity. Even there, however, George was sometimes called to deal with an emergency back in the city. They also enjoyed opportunities to itinerate together through surrounding districts, as this gave them more time to just be with one another.
On 7 April 1905, Amy and George’s daughter was born at Cha Cang Hospital, bringing them great joy. She was given two names that Amy held dear – that of her beloved cousin Isabel and the Oxley family name. From the beginning, Isabel was not a well baby and had difficulty sleeping. As she grew into a toddler she was slight and sickly, and she often had to be comforted by her Chinese amah (nanny) or parents. Not long after her birth, CMS supporters read the following disturbing news.
A great joy: a great sorrow: and a great deliverance fell to the lot of Dr George and Mrs Wilkinson in the last year – the birth of a little daughter, later on the sickness as it seemed to death … and then, soon after, the great joy of receiving back this precious child … from the hands of our great and loving Almighty Father.27
4.6 Cha Cang Hospital (left) and The Blind School (right), c. 1905.
Whether Isabel had allergic reactions to the food or climate or something more serious we do not know. For George, this mystery illness brought to a head his desire to do more work in the area of tropical medicine and hygiene during his forthcoming furlough in England.
In the meantime, another medical challenge was claiming more of George’s time and energy: the effects of opium addiction. Over the years, women had occasionally come to the dispensary and then hospital asking how they could persuade their husbands to give up the drug. A small number of addicts had also turned up, wanting to free themselves from it. These numbers were minuscule compared to the scale of the problem. Towards the end of 1905, George experimented with a new way of treating the problem. This led to what one of George’s helpers described as ‘a most unique work with opium smokers’ in a village of around 1,000 inhabitants in the district of Lieng Kong.
Of late, the opium-smoking had increased at an alarming rate, and the price during the last five years has gone up 400%, the fields and houses are being sold, and the village was on the verge of going to pieces. Last December four opium-smokers had gone to the CMS Hospital at Foochow, and were there cured by Dr Wilkinson. One of the men, who also took opium, daily secreted part of his allowance of pills, and when he returned home cured his wife with them. The fame of Dr Wilkinson and his pills became so great that the village determined to invite him to cure their opium-smokers.
The elders and head-men of the village prepared a feast, at which they considered what could be done, and through the Christians they approached Sophie Newton who forwarded the invitation, with the result that the Doctor began work with them on 2nd March.
The men ranged in age from 20 to about 70 years; five being over 60 and several had smoked for over 30 years … The physical distress of these poor men during the first two weeks [of treatment] was terrible; tears streaming from their eyes, pain, vomiting, and almost every aching sickness a person could conceive, while the craving was almost excruciating up to the last day …
Much prayer was offered on our behalf for this venture and from the first God was manifestly with us … Up till March there had been continuous rain but on that day the weather broke, and it remained fair until after the three weeks when continuous rain came on. This was indeed providential as in the large and very open hall it would have been impossible and risky to keep them in.28
This treatment involved George administering tablets spiced with morphine to help wean patients off opium. It was highly successful but required carefully calculated doses that minimised the chance of their becoming dependent on it. In the village, 79 men and 9 women were cured of their habit. While afterwards a few lapsed, who were then either expelled from the village or conditionally allowed to stay, most managed to remain free from addiction. The success of this treatment had two important results. First, it linked overcoming the habit with the Christian faith, especially since previous efforts connected with ancestral religion had failed. In light of this, the village’s plans to erect a temple were replaced by the decision to build a church. Second, word spread about the extraordinary change that had taken place and led to other villages asking for similar help. In one of these, 30 men and 9 women were treated, and to celebrate there was a large fireworks display.
4.7 Isabel with her parents, during a visit by Oxley relatives c. 1906.
In the meantime, important developments were taking place in wider Chinese society. The longstanding imperial system in China was in decline, hastened by its endorsement of the failed Boxer Uprising. In the early 1900s, Dowager Empress Cixi had initiated some significant changes – for example, providing the basis for a constitutional monarchy, preparing reforms in education and medicine, and framing a decree to ban foot-binding – but these were too few and too late for many amongst China’s elite. Moves towards more extensive reform were gathering force.
Around this time, George was presented with a lacquer board by wealthy officials in Foochow, honouring his hospital’s work in the area and listing names of supporters in the city who donated beds.29 Buoyed by the way both their institutions were gaining wider recognition in Foochow, early in 1907 Amy and George headed off, planning to go to England first and then Australia. This would enable them to meet each other’s families and introduce Isabel to everyone.
CHAPTER 5
A Travelling Sight and Sound Show (1907–1914)
Accompanied by a young, partially sighted Chinese boy, Ding, in late April, the Wilkinson family went on furlough. During their nine months in London, the Wilkinsons lived at the Bolton Infirmary in Islington where George worked as senior head surgeon to assist with the cost of their accommodation and study expenses. Encouraged by CMS, George also took the opportunity to complete a three-month professional diploma at the prestigious London School of Tropical Medicine. Located at the Albert Dock Seamen’s Hospital by the Thames, it focused on equipping medical people to deal with health issues in tropical countries throughout the British Empire. Just a few years earlier, one of the school’s greatest students won the Nobel Prize for his work on malaria. To this day, the school continues to provide leading-edge, interdisciplinary research in the global public health area.1
Although missing the Blind School, for Amy the opportunity to see the sights and sounds of the ‘home country’ – particularly Yorkshire from where the Oxleys and Marsdens hailed – was like a dream come true. Getting to know George’s family and friends was a little daunting, but it helped her to understand him better and it was a good opportunity for Isabel to meet her grandmother, aunts and uncles. On one occasion, as part of his deputation responsibilities, George was one of the international speakers representing the four largest member societies at the Annual Meeting of the Medical Mission Association in London. 2
On 26 March 1908, after six weeks at sea on the SS Persia, the Wilkinsons and Ding arrived in Melbourne. It was now George’s turn to meet Amy’s family and friends, and time to introduce them to Isabel. They travelled first by train to Geelong, where they were greeted by the Hope family and driven by horse and buggy to ‘Darriwill’, which Amy had talked so much to George about. Being in the country again reminded George of his own farming roots. The Wilkinsons revelled in the quiet and peace of the Australian bush; the opportunity to rest, read, walk, ride and simply ‘be’ a family – something that was very difficult for them to do in China – for over two months restored their health and hearts.
5.1 Amy, George and Isabel relaxing at ‘Darriwill’, 1908, with Chinese boy Ding.
After travelling by train to Sydney, George met Amy’s ageing mother and some of her brothers and sisters. In early June, he began his CMS deputation
work in Sydney and some regional towns in NSW. In these talks, his focus on the challenges and prospects for the gospel in ‘the new China’ was remarkably prophetic.
The conservatism of centuries is passing away, and with it great and new problems for the Christian Church are emerging. Only a few years ago the old standards of education – wooden, lifeless, unkeyed to the life of the people and to national progress – obtained. Now the old systems are going by the board and Western ideas of education are prevailing, with great and wonderful possibilities for the Chinese people. The old superstitions are losing their hold, and unless the Christian Church rises to the occasion, a national lapse into atheism, with disastrous consequences, will result.3
George always emphasised the importance of medical missions in extending the work of Christ in China. The traditional medical system and its remedies were notoriously inadequate. There was little understanding of anatomy or of the value of anaesthetics. Surgical instruments were crude and the simplest operations beyond Chinese capacity. By healing the sick and relieving suffering, many Chinese people were helped and seriously considered the gospel.
Back in Melbourne, George spoke to Christian students at Melbourne University. This brought back memories of his days in Cambridge and how talks he heard by missionaries then had such an impact on him. Over the next few months he spoke to a variety of groups. His schedule in the Church Missionary Society Gleaner shows his movements.4
July 18–23
Ballarat Exhibition (at which the Australian prime minister Alfred Deakin also spoke) 5
July 24–26
Daylesford
July 27
Men’s Meeting, St Thomas’ Essendon
July 28
Ladies’ Meeting, St Mary’s Caulfield 7pm Nurses’ Meeting, St Hilda’s Missionary Training House
July 29
Annual Meeting Gleaners’ Union, 8pm Christ Church, St Kilda
Returning to Sydney, Amy gave her only reported talk on the Blind School in the form of a lantern lecture at Samuel Marsden’s old church, St John’s Parramatta. Dressed in Chinese costume, she mentioned that on her return to China, Miss Alice Kendall, relative of Australian poet Henry Kendall, would be assisting her in the work of the Blind School.6
For the Wilkinsons, the extended period on furlough provided an opportunity to gain perspective on their work and consider plans for the future. It also gave them the promise of a second child, though he would not arrive until they had returned to Foochow.
院書光靈
In the meantime, movements for large-scale reform in China were gaining momentum: 7
in politics, the dominant figure was Sun Yat Sen, a trained doctor and baptised Christian who had committed himself to turning China into a modern republic. Before the Boxer Uprising he had formulated his ‘Three People’s Principles’ – nationalism (freedom from imperialist dominance), democracy (along Western lines) and quality of life (involving land redistribution). During 1907–1908, Sun helped fund and sponsor six different military uprisings in the south of the country. Though these failed, city authorities in Foochow, several of whom were now Christians, were sympathetic to his cause.8
in education, an end was made to the elite Confucian examination system and new government schools were established throughout the country, including in Fukien Province. However, these were still primarily for boys and were modest in number, and the curriculum focused on Chinese classics. They did not touch the average city or poorer rural children the missionaries were reaching.
in health, anti-opium societies were being formed to confiscate the drug and treat addicts. This took pace in Foochow and some of its nearby districts. Strongly supported by missionaries, these societies organised parades and demonstrations of up to 10,000 people, public burnings of the drug and the closure of over 3,000 dens in the capital alone. Many farmers also stopped growing the plant. To the missionaries’ embarrassment, however, the British government refused Peking’s demands to close down the opium trade, insisting that over the next decade it be reduced by only 10 per cent per year.
Arriving back in Foochow, assisted through her pregnancy by Alice Kendall, Amy resumed her work. On 9 June 1909 a healthy boy was born in Cha Cang Hospital. Deciding he would bear both of Amy’s family names, their son was baptised Marsden Oxley Wilkinson.
In the spring, blind boys came from other parts of the province as well as from Canton, and the first from as far away as Singapore. What travelling to the school involved for one newcomer, from an inland village in Fukien, is vividly described in a little anthology of Everyday Tales of China.
There came a day when Daik-ong was the centre of a group of hospital nurses and patients all saying good-bye as he set out on the long journey to Foochow. He thanked people for their kindness to him, trying hard not to cry, which was very difficult … presents of cakes, oranges and money were stuffed into his pockets. The loadsman was ready with basket, waiting for the passenger, but before he would start, Daik-ong insisted on sharing his presents with his friends.
At last he was settled in the basket. Tears were very near, but suddenly the doctor thrust a wonderful [soft toy] elephant into his arms, and with that to comfort him, the loadsman lifted the basket upend and started off in earnest on the way to school.
Through the streets and out by the West Gate of the city of Funing and across the long, sandy plain, pat, pat went the straw shoes of the loadsman. Now and then there was a rest for a few minutes, and then on again, until about an hour the first rest-house was reached, and the loadsman sat down to drink tea and smoke a pipe. Then to his joy Daik-ong heard the voices of friends, and some of the foreigners who were also on their way to Foochow. At the second rest-house a picnic under a big tree was fun. There were cakes and tea, and fruit, and again Daik-ong’s hand was stretched out with an orange to be shared with someone.
On the way once more, and before long the sea … It was a happy boy who played on the deck of the good ship … During the night he was carried … on board a steamer, but after some hours on the steamer, he landed once more …
Out in the street again, people turned to look at the strange sight of a blind boy skipping along with his hand clasped in that of a foreigner. An old woman, sitting on a door-stop with all sorts of things to sell, was a great attraction to the country boy and a mouse that ran along only cost him a farthing! At last a rickshaw was called, and with all his treasures Daik-ong was lifted up and travelled with the foreigner.
Then came questions. The first was addressed to the rickshaw coolie: ‘Rickshaw-man, where do you come from?’ The man was very much amazed, and answered politely. When the rickshaw man rang his bell the reason had to be explained. ‘Are we quite safe in this?’ he questioned. Buses and motors sounded different bells and horns, and Daik-ong decided that ‘Foochow is a city of bells.’
Next day he travelled in a crowded bus, where strange people asked him many questions, and he answered as well as he could, for the other passengers spoke in good Foochow dialect, whereas Daik-ong had a country language of his own.
When he left the bus and got into a rickshaw with his missionary friend for the end of the journey he said: ‘I notice one thing about carriages. If you have to trust to men to draw them, they are very slow: but if you can just push them like my own motor, or like the big bus we were in just now, they can run very fast. But the bus has something inside it to make it go by itself. What is it?’
A few days later Daik-ong was playing with his new friends, blind boys like himself, in the School at Foochow.9
院書光靈
Now with two children of her own to care for, especially with Isabel still sickly and prone to fits, Amy hardly had time to come up for air. George was also busy, not just with his responsibilities in the hospital but in writing up some of his medical observations and taking up opportunities to treat opium addicts in local villages.
Soon after he got back, building on what he had learned from his diploma, George wrote a report
to CMS about the main tropical diseases encountered in Fukien. Cholera, which tended to appear each year, always led to many deaths, and every so often it reached epidemic proportions. Smallpox was another regular problem. Liver disease and elephantiasis were also common. Malaria occurred less in the city, but more in country areas. Over the previous few years, dengue fever had also made its appearance.10
5.2 George Wilkinson, working from home in the hospital compound c. 1909.
George still found himself called upon to deal with opium addiction outside the hospital. We are fortunate to have his detailed description of one such case in the first half of 1909:
The day is bright and sunny in the village of Dusung. As one walks down the main street, however, neither the scent nor the scene is inviting. Various ponds are being cleaned out, and the mud is lying thick on each side of the pathway. … The sonorous voice of the gong-beater proclaims, in the intervals of silence, that the day for giving up opium has arrived, and that those addicted to this habit are to repair to the temple set apart for this purpose.
Towards the latter part of the afternoon men of wasted, dusky, and not infrequently of morose and forbidding expression may be seen wending their way to the temple, carrying bed-boards and other paraphernalia needed during their sojourn there. The temple has been loaned to God’s servants for a fortnight that it may be turned into a hospital for opium patients … and yet this is the village … where in the past years it was difficult to get a hearing for God’s cause. The little church, formerly an idol temple, and the adjoining dispensary, by their quiet, regular working, have doubtless prepared the way for this present opportunity. And greater wonder still, the literary man who formerly offered the most determined opposition … is the mastermind of this movement and responsible for inviting the foreign doctor to come and help.