by Linda Banks
The little blind girl’s drill. They came from Nantai, wee tots, and did all sorts of pretty kindergarten games. At first they were shy and I thought their performance would collapse altogether, but they warmed up to it and forgot the audience and evoked rounds of applause …
The Blind Boys Kindergarten drill which was very well done indeed and very pretty with coloured handkerchiefs. The little fellows were all dressed in coats and long trousers to match, made of dark blue cloth covered with a white flower pattern …
The flag drill by the bigger blind boys, each with 2 flags, one Chinese and one special blind school flag. They lined up at the end of their drill and sang the Chinese National Anthem …
The English song and the band pieces by the Blind Boys Choir, which were splendid, as good as any Queen’s Hall concert …
The speech of the afternoon, your Mother’s, was splendid, just exactly the right thing, but I can’t attempt to give it to you word for word. It was translated into Chinese Mandarin … the Foochow dialect being only for less illustrious uses.
After the programme was over, came tea for everybody. They seemed to get heaps too without any fuss and as soon as they were finished they were all drafted over to the Blind Boys School to see over it and from there they departed … I caught a glimpse of your mother before I went – simply beaming.30
Writing about the occasion later in connection with the Blind School, Amy described the complimentary boards as 6 feet long by 2½ feet high, with beautifully composed characters. On one was written ‘Those who restore to others that which they lack are worthy of great honour’. On a second, ‘Light, Clear, Brilliant, Help the world’. And, on a third, written by the president of the republic in Chinese, on gold silk with an official seal: ‘It is an honour to the school to have received these marks of distinction from the Government, and their real value lies in the fact that they indicate the awakening of China to an appreciation of what is being done for the blind in Christ’s name.’31
News of Amy’s awards hit Australian newspapers across the country, typical of which was one stating that ‘News has been received from Foochow, China, that the Chinese Government has just awarded the great honour of the Order of the Golden Grain to Mrs Wilkinson.’ It added that ‘prior to her leaving with Dr Wilkinson for England on a well earned furlough, the military and civil governors of the Province presented Mrs Wilkinson with a special medal for good works.’ 32
CHAPTER 7
From the Far East to the East End (1921–1949)
Amy and George could hardly wait to arrive in England to see their children. Even though they were returning a year earlier than CMS expected, letters from Jane were weighing heavily upon them. Horace’s death three weeks before the Armistice had abruptly cut off the steady income she and her mother relied on, and they were not entitled to the military pension reserved for spouses. Their five-year arrangement for looking after the children was also coming to an end. Isabel had left school and Marsden was about to enter secondary college. All this meant that some major decisions had to be made.
Through George’s medical contacts, the Wilkinsons had organised to rent a house in Beaconsfield, on the rural edge of London. Despite selling their house in Kuliang, they were financially constrained because of poor exchange rates. It didn’t take them long to realise that any further separation from their children was out of the question. In the last year, the children’s letters indicated that, since Horace’s death, life under Aunt Jane’s rule had become increasingly strict and severe. Isabel was missing her parents deeply and Marsden was becoming something of a handful. For the sake of their children, Amy and George decided that returning to China was no longer an option. It was now important to help Isabel find work as a nurse or governess and enrol Marsden in a school that would prepare him for entrance to university or a trade. Neither of these opportunities would be possible in Foochow. However much Amy and George’s hearts still lay in China, they knew they had to resign.
In October, George wrote to CMS committees in both London and Fukien, citing ‘urgent family circumstances’ as the reason for their decision. As there was no obvious or immediate replacement for George, they pleaded with him to return, but he and Amy both felt this was God’s timing. At its next meeting in February, the Fukien Conference tabled the following resolution:
It is with regret that we record the resignation of Dr Wilkinson. During the twenty-one years that Dr Wilkinson spent in this Mission he founded and developed the present C.M.S. Medical Mission. By his kindness and sympathy he won the love of many. As a surgeon he stood in the forefront of his profession and his services were sought for by man far and wide. We pray God that His blessing may ever be with our brother, and we feel sure that though he may no longer be with us, his keen interest in the work that he founded will continue, and we trust that he may be able to deepen and extend missionary interest at home.
We wish to place on record our great appreciation of the work accomplished by Mrs Wilkinson for the Blind Boys School. She began her work and carried it to a very high standard of efficiency. Her name will always be connected with this splendid work. The Mission has sustained a very serious loss by her resignation and we sincerely hope she will be able to return to the field at a later date to continue this good work.1
There were other deep expressions of regret. In March, the editorial of the medical missionary journal Mercy and Truth recorded that: ‘Dr Wilkinson will long be remembered as a skilful surgeon by thousands of grateful Chinese patients, and Mrs Wilkinson has left an imperishable memorial to her loving labour in the Blind School.’
In order to secure an income, George set up a private practice in the front rooms of their home at Beaconsfield. This process occupied much of the following year and involved him entering into financial obligations for the next few years. Amy found adjusting to working mainly in the home difficult, especially since in China she had always had domestic help. She was therefore pleased when CMS agreed to her proposal to have the Blind School Band take part in the upcoming CMS ‘Africa and the East’ Exhibition in London the following year. As there were CMS supporters in other cities and towns that were interested in the band performing, setting up a schedule that included venues, accommodation and publicity for the tour soon became a part-time job.
The Exhibition, CMS’ first since the war, was to be held at the expansive Agricultural Hall in Islington from 17 May to 15 June, followed by brief tours to cities elsewhere in England. Its aim was to demonstrate ‘the worthwhileness of missionary work today’ through displays of CMS work from various countries in Africa and Asia. In April, eight boys from the Blind School, together with two assistants, were on their way from Foochow. An article in Singapore’s Straits Times captures something of Amy’s organisational skills in pulling off this ambitious vision.
7.1 CMS Exhibition in the Agricultural Hall, London, 1922.
Eight boys from the School had arrived in England, having travelled by Japanese steamer via the Suez Canal – a longer journey than they had hitherto taken from their homeland. Each boy is a trained musician and can play and sing English and Chinese music. All can speak English to some level quite fluently. They were accompanied by their Chinese teacher … and by a coolie who cooks their food in native fashion. 2
This Exhibition was a huge event. Over 500 ticket secretaries were required to process the crowds that attended – ultimately a quarter of a million people. The layout of the venue included partial replicas of an African village, a mission hospital, a Chinese street, an Indian outcast village, a Japanese rickshaw ride and the Foochow Blind Boys Band.3 As a headline entitled ‘Forty Truckloads of Scenery’ recorded, the organisation required to create the Chinese display, including the Blind School, was massive.
In the Chinese Street we see members of the blind boys band from the ‘Soul-Lighted School’ at Foochow, all happily at work making mats and baskets. Then we listen to one of their concerts in the Chinese Guest Room … We can only mention the very
interesting cinema lectures, costumes, scenes and other attractions of this fine exhibition.4
From the start of the Exhibition, reports of the ‘Chinese Street’ display began to capture people’s imagination. Quoting the bishop of London,
I came in for a quarter of an hour; I have now spent 3 hours here and I see already that I must revise all my ideas of foreign missions. Early publicity of the varied activities in the China Street display helped draw crowds to it:
For these lads are a little bit of the real China … As you look at them you have to realise that they are representative and symbolic of many thousands of the blind in China for whom in the past practically no provision has been made. They are living testimonies of what the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ means to the ‘sick’, to the ‘lost’ of these vast populations of the East; once unwanted and neglected they have been cared for, educated, saved in the wide and true sense of the word.
The performance, consisting of vocal and instrumental music in English and Chinese we attended was received with the utmost appreciation by a large audience … Mrs Wilkinson is anxious that English audiences should understand and feel the force of the Gospel message which these young men are singing, and certainly their songs do linger in the mind.
Mrs Wilkinson herself, through her Christly work as foundress of the Boys’ Blind School, and as guardian mother to these dear lads now in our country is an effective argument for the Christian Mission.5
Without doubt, the highlight of the month-long event for Amy was being presented to Her Majesty, Queen Mary, during an official visit to the Exhibition on 30 May. The monarch was fascinated by the Chinese displays and deliberately spent time asking questions about the work of the Blind Boys School and the band, complimenting Amy on her role in these. Of particular interest to her was the blind boys’ skills in music and trades, especially matting. The queen graciously accepted one of the mats presented to her by Amy on behalf of the school.6
7.2 Amy being presented to Queen Mary at the CMS Exhibition, 1922.
院書光靈
While the Exhibition was taking place, the CMS committee in Fukien wrote to George urging his return to Foochow as soon as possible. His Chinese assistant at the hospital, Dr Ding, had unexpectedly died and they had been unable appoint anyone to replace him as head of the medical mission. George replied immediately saying that, partly because he had entered into a financial contract connected with his practice, he could not do this. The committee then pressured the CMS medical mission in London to help resolve this problem. It offered to cover George’s financial liabilities by providing £100 annually for the next five years. His reply the following day was unequivocal.
It is very hard, on behalf of my wife and myself, to have again to say ‘No’ … We greatly appreciate the effort … to make matters smooth for us financially. The question is however much more than a financial one and involves problems which seem to us unsolvable. With appreciation of the great need at Foochow and deep sympathy with our fellow-workers there, we can see no gleam pointing us Chinawards.7
For Amy, the Exhibition was only the starting point of a 5-month, 5,000-mile tour of 130 cities and towns across the length and breadth of England. Events were generally held in large public venues such as town or guild halls (including the famous Grand Pump Room in Bath), in parks, gardens and on piers, and occasionally in large churches or chapels. There were often afternoon and evening concerts, as well as separate performances for children and adults. These visits were publicised beforehand in regional newspapers and reported on afterwards, sometimes in considerable detail.
Travel was mainly by charabanc, a large open-air vehicle holding up to twelve passengers. Accommodation was mainly provided by well-todo local people, including at least once staying in a bishop’s residence. The tour began from Carlisle in the north, down through the Midlands, Wales and Devon, to Kent and the south coast. Some of the cities visited were Sunderland, York, Derby, Gloucester, Chelmsford, Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Barnstaple, Hastings and Dover.
The fullest account of a typical performance comes from the Dover Express under the headline ‘Blind Chinese Boys Concert’.8
There was a very large attendance at the Town Hall on Monday evening to listen to the programme provided by the blind Chinese boy musicians from Foochow, where a school has been run for 25 years by Mrs G. Wilkinson, who brought the party to England in order that more may be known of this highly successful missionary work.
The Mayor … said that it was a great pleasure to him to be able to welcome to Dover the blind lads from China, and he was sure the audience would join with him in that especially when they remembered the instruments the lads played they had never seen nor the music … they were all taught to read and were able to go out into the world to earn their own living. Already some were married and had children … It was seldom [people] had the chance to see the result of money sent abroad, and, therefore, they were especially gratified to be able to be present that evening. He gave the boys a hearty welcome to Dover (applause).
Mrs Wilkinson said she thanked them very much for the reception given to the boys. She could assure them that it was a great privilege and honour to come to the old town of Dover.
The programme which followed was exceptionally well carried out, and the explanation by Mrs Wilkinson as to the various methods of teaching, added greatly to the interest. The playing of the Chinese cymbals at the outset made the audience wonder what was to follow, but any fear they might have had was soon dispelled, however, by ‘The Double Eagle’, a march played by the band in fine style. The rendering of the 23rd Psalm, first in Chinese and then in English, was an item equally well received, the enunciation of the reader in English being very good and gave some idea of the excellent training they received in the school. These items were followed by others equally good, a hymn in Chinese, ‘Lord, I care not for riches’, and on the stringed instruments ‘Unkind friends receive a bad reward.’ On the organ one of the party played with considerable feeling ‘What are these arrayed with white?’ and he was loudly applauded at the close. ‘Killarney’ was a well-rendered cornet solo; and a quartette in English ‘Is it well with thy soul?’ was much appreciated.
The Mayor, appealing for generous contributions to the collection, said that there was one point which had appealed to him that evening from Mrs Wilkinson’s remarks, and that was the opportunity they had of trade with China … [and] would not only receive benefit themselves but China would also do so.
7.3 The Blind Boys Band that toured England, 1922.
During the taking of the collection, the band played the march ‘Men of Harlech’ and afterwards Mrs Wilkinson described the trades which the boys were learning and some of their training in school, showing some of the mats which they had made, one of which had been accepted by Her Majesty the Queen.
The Rev. E.E. Brown thanked the Mayor and Mayoress for being present and also the party which had provided such a splendid entertainment. He was certain the hearers had been touched by what they had seen and heard. He asked that they should give the lads a hearty clap.
At the request of a member of the audience the hymn ‘When peace like a river’ was sung at the close.9
Other newspaper accounts indicate the presence of local aristocracy and professional people at these events. Typical comments about the evening include reference to the ‘beautiful singing’, ‘novel instruments’, ‘extraordinary entertainment’ and ‘impressive reading of Scripture.’ There is frequent mention of ‘very large attendance’, ‘every seat being occupied’, ‘general applause’ and an ‘enthusiastic response.’ Particular items, for example a boy singing ‘And I shall see my Pilot’s face when I have crossed the bar’, were reported to have evoked deep ‘pathos and sympathy’ in those listening. Concertgoers waited afterwards to see the band, ‘cheering them as they left for their quarters’, and observed that the boys were ‘soul-lighted, though they cannot see, living witnesses to the power of Christianity.’
/> A farewell concert was held on 29 January 1923 at the Queen’s Hall in London. Many CMS supporters and ‘Africa and the East’ Exhibition stewards attended. To these people, ‘there came once more, against the background of China’s overwhelming need and magnificent possibilities, a vision of the whole world’s need … and the life of service open to every Christian.’10
Although for Amy it was exhausting, the blind boys’ tour had been a wonderful opportunity. Many across England gained firsthand experience of the importance of mission. The boys increased their confidence in performing in English, developed additional skills in piano tuning and learned the new trades of shoemaking and massage to take back and teach at the school. Ticket sales from their performances would contribute substantially to the school’s financial security over the coming years. As she said farewell to the band in early February, Amy wondered if she would ever see her ‘Chinese boys’ again? A number had been her first students and others she had personally taught. All their hearts were heavy as they prayed together for the final time at the docks.
院書光靈
On their way back to China, waiting over several days in Hong Kong for a connecting boat to Foochow, the band played again in Kowloon. An Australian missionary in Foochow, Nellie Matthews, provided the following snapshot of what the English tour had meant to the Blind School.
There was great excitement and real joy among all in the Blind School when the boys arrived from England. They were so well and happy … Now each mail brings them letters from their English friends, sometimes written in English Braille. Of course the blind boys can answer all letters themselves by typewriter or in Braille … The boys feel they cannot say enough about the kindness of the English people, and they say, ‘Truly it was not because of our music, it was not because we play and sing well that the people were so kind to us: no, truly our music and singing is nothing compared with the music they have in England; it is because they have received the real Christian teaching and reckon us fellow Christians, as brothers, that they loved us and treated us kindly.11