by Linda Banks
Next Amy writes about the benefits of what she calls ‘drills’, activities that develop students’ gross motor skills, spatial awareness and social interaction, which have
a beneficial effect upon these boys, many of which are very delicate when they come to us. It is delightful to see them learning to march quickly, and to go in and out of doors as if they were gifted with sight.
The boys love football, but the playground is very inadequate, and when they kick the ball, it frequently goes into the street and is at once picked up, and carried off, never to be seen again. Tug-of-war, to say the least of it, is very exciting, so exciting that at times the rope is suddenly twisted round the veranda post by an over-energetic boy, and down comes the roof. Swinging ladders, climbing poles, see-saws, etc., are all in use, but so close together that one is afraid lest the boys should hurt each other.
Then there are other games, e.g., the colour game: a round board is divided into triangular sections, painted red, blue, green, white and yellow. Each section has two poles, with pegs for them of the same colour as the section. The pegs are put out – the red peg into the red section, and so on – are placed into baskets which are about ten feet from the board, and the boys each pick out a peg and run to the board. The peg has a distinguishing feature on it, which the boy feels with his finger. They play the game very quickly, and people wonder how the blind boy can know the colour.
6.3 Boys from the Blind School enacting a Red Cross drill.
6.4 The travelling Blind Boys Band.
Then there is the Red Cross game, played by the lads in the kindergarten, and designed to help them understand something of what Red Cross flags, guns, and wooden horses, accompanied by a ‘doctor and two nurses’ is like … When the ‘firing’ begins, the little boys shout, and pretend to let off their guns, one or two fall down, and the Red Cross men come and carry off the wounded and bandage them …
In conclusion, Amy writes about a very distinctive feature of the school.
Music and singing are a great joy to the majority of our boys, and to facilitate their learning, we have adopted the English Braille system for writing music. We began in a very simple way with a two-string Chinese violin, and found it possible to play a tune on these two strings, a penny whistle, a harmonium, and a Chinese drum. Later on we had a penny whistle band. Then we added a bugle to our stock, and a cornet. Learning to play upon the cornet made it easy for us to master other instruments when we got them. From time to time the band has visited other places, and acted, one may say, as an advertisement for the school. The audiences have been astonished, not only at the playing, but at the various other things the pupils can do. Our great hope is that many of these young lads as they grow up, may be ‘called to the work of evangelists’ and going into country districts, may perhaps start by teaching music and singing, and so gather the people round them to hear the good news of the Gospel.14
院書光靈
In the autumn of 1917, Amy organised concerts for the brass band in the regional centres of Amoy, Ningteh, Funing, Fuan and Lieng Kong, as well as Swatow and Canton in neighbouring provinces. Over a two-year period, it performed more than 20 times. Many school classes and wealthier Chinese attended the concerts, groups that Christian workers in the areas had found difficult to reach. In Fuan, officials presented Amy with a silver and enamel cup to commemorate the visit. On their trip to Lieng Kong, Amy and George took her brother Fred Oxley and his wife, who were visiting from Australia, to her old village of Deng Doi. Meanwhile, back in Foochow, she was delighted at the way students were taking the initiative in serving the wider community.
The Blind School is responsible for a small Sunday School in the city, and blind boys teach in several others which have been started in neighbouring villages. They also help with services at the nearby CMS Men’s Hospital … One senior boy has returned to Singapore where it is hoped that he will be of use as a teacher.15
On 14 August 1917, the Chinese government entered the war against Germany by sending 140,000 soldiers to join the Allies in France. This was largely a political move designed to strengthen the country’s bargaining power on the world stage, especially with regard to the growing Japanese influence in the north Pacific. Japan had its eyes on part of the nearby Chinese province of Shandong that the Germans presently occupied. For the Wilkinsons, this development reminded them afresh of their own relatives and friends who were fighting on the Western Front – young men like Amy’s nephews John Oxley Norton and John Row, as well as George’s brother, Horace, who had been helping to look after Isabel and Marsden.
In late November, Amy heard that her much-loved Aunt Lizzie Hassall had been paralysed by a massive stroke. Two months later, when news of her death finally reached Foochow, Amy was comforted by the knowledge that one of Lizzie’s ‘old girls’ from the Marsden Training Home, Alice Phillips, had sat on the edge of her bed and softly sung her into heaven.16 A personal milestone for Amy herself took place on 13 January 1918 – her 50th birthday. The occasion made her conscious of how much she would like to visit Australia again. If she did so, she would be able to accept an invitation to attend the Oxley Family Centenary celebration in Tamworth, New South Wales, in September. Since she had missed out on the Marsden Reunion in 1914, George encouraged her to stay several months.
For Amy, sailing through the Heads into the magnificent Sydney Harbour on a crisp day early in August was both exciting and daunting. She was looking forward to staying with her sister, Beatrice, in the beachside suburb of Coogee. As well as connecting with supporters of the Blind School, she wanted to catch up with her extended family scattered throughout the state. First on her list was her childhood home, ‘Kirkham’, and ‘Camelot’ where her father’s flour mill had once stood. Then, with Beattie, St Paul’s Cobbitty to see her mother’s and Aunt Lizzie’s graves, especially as she had missed both their funerals. Walking around the cemetery brought back many memories of her Hassall grandparents, her father and eldest sister, and caused her to count the cost of spending almost half her life away in China.
Amy’s return to her homeland was greeted in The Sydney Morning Herald with an article and a photo of the Blind School entitled ‘Teaching Blind Boys: A Missionary Starts with one Child and now has 95’.17 While she was in Sydney, her cousin Isabel travelled up from ‘Darriwill’ to see her. It had been ten years since they last spent time together. There were so many stories to tell and memories to recall. When they said goodbye, little did either of them know this would be their last opportunity to see each other. After enjoying further time in Sydney, Amy and Beattie travelled by train to the southwestern regional town of Wagga Wagga where her brother Fred was the shire engineer. During a relaxed time there, she spoke twice at St John’s Anglican Church, with the local newspaper picking up especially on the wider relevance of her work: ‘She had found that the blind were excellent teachers of the blind and in this connection suggested that returning blind Australian soldiers should be taught by the blind.’18
Passing through Sydney, the sisters began their trip north by train to the Oxley celebration in Tamworth. Breaking their journey in Newcastle, Amy took part in an inter-denominational missionary exhibition by giving a lantern lecture, joining with missionaries from ‘various parts of the world to … bring stay-at-home people into touch with the ways of life of remote peoples.’19 Arriving in Tamworth, Amy and Beattie were met by other family members who were also guests of honour at the Centenary. The date chosen for the event was 2 September, the day John Oxley had discovered the Peel River on which Tamworth was situated. The state’s premier was present, along with six Oxley descendants of whom Amy was the most prominent. The event included multiple receptions, two public dinners, official ceremonies and a children’s picnic. Its climax was the unveiling of the foundation stone for a monument to honour its discoverer.20 As the Oxley family’s representative, Amy ‘thanked the people of Tamworth for their wonderful hospitality … [and] whole-hearted friendship.’ 21 She then travelled
down to the Southern Highlands to spend time with her sister, Mary Row, and visit places from her childhood in Bowral, the site of which had been donated by her father in 1859.
While Amy was away, George continued his work at the hospital and had a break in their holiday home in Kuliang where he was free to do what he enjoyed most.
My delight is to dig and weed in the garden, to roam about and visit fern and orchid haunts, to listen to the music of the gorge and the soughing of the pines, to welcome the bird and animal visitors (a squirrel or a jay or a sparrow hawk or an owl as the case may be), to view the beauties of sunrise and sunset over the range upon range of hills and the river in the distance … God seems to come near in the silences of the hills and there is a deep meaning in the Psalm that says: ‘I will lift mine eyes to the hills from which cometh my help’ (Psalm 121:1).22
A sad event around this time was the death of Ling Kai’s baby only a few months after he had lost his wife. As George writes:
The poor fellow was frenzied with grief and it seemed for a time as if he would lose his reason but God’s calm conquered and he was quite calm the next day when the small funeral took place up the hillside outside the North Gate. 23
In addition to this tragedy, an outbreak of smallpox struck down 14 boys in the Blind School. The school also had to be temporarily closed during some unrest in the city, but several wealthier citizens took in nearly 30 boys whose homes were too far away. ‘Some of these men are “near to the Kingdom of God” and do Christ-like things but it is difficult for them to really identify with Christ.’ 24
On the twentieth anniversary of the hospital’s work, it was especially pleasing to see that the work ‘has now won an established position in this central city and indeed in a great deal of the northern part of the province as well.’ 25
This acceptance was despite limitations imposed by equipment, financial constraints and treatments that some patients would not allow.
Around this time there were noticeable contrasts between Chinese and Western influences in Foochow. Walking down its streets, you would see both ladies in European dresses and women with bound feet, shops selling up-to-date medicines and others traditional herbs, and motor cars alongside sedan chairs. On public occasions, you would sometimes encounter anti-Western and, indirectly, anti-Christian attitudes among students and intellectuals, sometimes erupting in demonstrations. These protests contributed to the growing nationalist feelings, violent student unrest and ultimately the birth of the Communist Party that were to mark the country in the following decade.
院書光靈
Amy’s return to Foochow in late October 1918 was bittersweet. On reaching her school, she heard that around 60 of the boys had contracted the Spanish influenza virus that had infected millions of people worldwide. With the hospital nearby, however, medical intervention was able to prevent any dire consequences. When on 11 November the Armistice was signed, George and Amy arranged a thanksgiving celebration in the hospital compound. Doctors, nurses, medical students and blind boys gathered around the flagpole flying both the Union Jack and the Southern Cross, and they gave thanks to God for peace at last.
Within days of the Armistice, Amy was told that during her time in Australia, Mr Hu, a Hanlin scholar, and Mr Guok, head of the Confucianists in Foochow, had invited 60 officials, literati and headmasters in the city to a feast. The express purpose was to organise a petition to the president of the republic asking him to confer on her the ‘Order of the Golden Grain’. The highest honour that could be conferred in China on a foreigner, it had only been awarded once before to a Westerner.26 Amy was overwhelmed by this gesture, though she knew the process could take months or even years to complete.
At the Blind School, her main challenge was finding space for additional boys for whom there was no room. This was highlighted in the story of
an exceptionally bright, intelligent, and thoughtful boy of about 10 years of age. When he was brought to us, I had to say (as to over 30 other blind boys), ‘We cannot take you in, there is no room at the school.’ He answered pitifully: ‘Put me on the floor to sleep, put me anywhere, only let me come in.’ He wept bitterly when he thought he had to go home, which to him meant utter wretchedness. What could we do but squeeze him in? He did not know anything about God, had never heard of Him. Now he has been in the school about three weeks. The other day I was talking to him, and asked if he really loved the Lord Jesus. He said: ‘Yes, I do.’ I asked: ‘But why do you love Jesus?’ He did not answer for a while. I sat in silence. Then he said: ‘He loves me.’27
Towards the end of the band’s two-year long visit outside Foochow, it performed in Hingwha for the opening of new Women’s and Boys’ Schools.
Though the poor boys were thoroughly tired after their three days journey, they played splendidly for over an hour … The feast tables were soon deserted after the band struck up and all the crowd gathered round to watch the boys, who looked so smart in their blue uniforms and red bands worn over the shoulder, on which were the characters of the school.28
In Amoy and Swatow, many thousands of Chinese attended the performances, and gifts not only covered the overdraft but provided enough money to carry on the work of the Blind School for six months.
In preparation for their upcoming furlough, and with a view to the Blind School’s future, Amy appointed a new principal, Rev. E.M. Norton. He was a CMS missionary from England who already had several years’ experience teaching at Trinity College in Foochow. His wife Edith, who had been a missionary in Japan, was an Australian from Tasmania. For George, his Chinese colleague, Dr Ding, would supervise the hospital after he left on furlough.
In July 1920, Amy received news that the request by the leaders in Foochow to honour her with the Order of the Golden Grain had been granted. The Church Missionary Gleaner highlighted the event on its front page:
[It] was made a public occasion, and not only by the teachers and boys of the blind school; the streets of the city were decorated, and the Governor’s band marched for miles displaying the official board which was to be presented. Altogether it was a gala day, and more than a thousand guests flocked to witness the formal presentation of the gold medal and the honorary boards, and to offer their own congratulations.
The most important items on the programme were, of course, the presentations. There were boards from three Confucian bodies and two educational societies, from the Governor-General, the Mayor of the city, the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, and others. There was a gold-medal from the Governor-General, and it was announced that a special Order of the Golden Grain was to be presented [on behalf of] the President. The last and most impressive of many speeches was by Mr Guok [the Confucian leader] himself. The old man’s gratitude for what had been done for these helpless boys struggled with a sense of shame that it had been left for a foreigner to do it.29
6.5 Amy’s Order of the Golden Grain Medal.
However grand the occasion was for Amy, her own children were never far from her mind. She asked Edith Norton, the wife of the new principal, and their son Teddy to write a description of the event for Isabel and Marsden. This was full of personal and colourful details.
I do not need to tell you that Mrs. Wilkinson is a very wonderful lady. But you will be very pleased to hear that everyone in Foochow has just begun to realize it …
I went to her house this morning at about 10.30 and the first thing I noticed was that flags were flying all down the main streets. This was in her honour! When I got to the house I found everything looking perfectly beautiful. The big gate was festooned with a thick arch of evergreen and flowers. Union Jacks and Stars and Stripes and the Chinese five coloured flag were flying in conspicuous places. A great platform had been erected in the garden with a large white awning over it to keep out the sun …
You know the tennis lawn. Well the platform was at the shady end under the trees, just below the little Summerhouse. Then up in terraces of the steep bank were chairs and forms, and at the bottom o
f the lawn were seats for the Chinese ladies …
The drawing room was for the officials and ‘big men’ – the dining room was for the less important men and the study for the ladies. So you see there was nowhere to have lunch at all. Where do you think we had it? Out in the garden under the trees, such a grand lunch too … Mrs Wilkinson looked awfully nice in a green silk coat with a lovely lace collar. She was quite nervous because she was to be the centre of attention, but all the same seemed perfectly calm and planned every little detail quite splendidly.
The doctor donned a cream suit for the occasion and was in great form. The day was simply beautiful: it could not possibly have been better. Lovely bright sunshine and not too hot. It made us all in a very smiling mood to start the afternoon.
I was in the ladies room receiving visitors from about one o’clock onwards [with] quite a number of Chinese girls and we all wore a red silk ribbon with our office written on it in black Chinese characters. The other folk were showing the ladies from the house to the garden and into their seats out there. Of course the men guests had their special receiving hosts too, quite a little army altogether was necessary.
Mrs Wilkinson’s duty was to sit still and do nothing and a very hard one she found it. But I can truthfully report that for the most part she performed it very well and graciously. The house became deserted. I needn’t go through all the programme … I’ll just tell you … the most interesting and funny parts …
The playing of the General’s Band. You’ll remember that Mrs. Wilkinson taught them for a little while more than a year ago. Well, their instruments had gone out of tune again badly and they had forgotten their music, so that their rendering of the British and American anthems was enough to make a cat laugh and we stood only in deference to what was printed on the programme …