Chronology | Missionaries and Mission Stations | Vic in China

Date	Event
1858	Treaty of Tianjin opens missionary access to China. The interior of China is opened to foreign visitors, 10 new treaty ports established.
1891	Dr. & Mrs. V.C Hart, Dr. & Mrs. O.L. Kilborn, Rev. & Mrs. G.E. Hartwell, Dr. David Stevenson, Miss Amelia Brown (WMS) are first group of Canadian missionaries to Chengtu, West China.
1891 - 1892	November – Anti-foreigner rioting in the Yangtze Valley delay the Canadian missionaries in Shanghai for 3 months before proceeding to Szechwan.
1892	Canadian Methodist Mission Station is established in Chengtu by Rev. V.C. Hart. “Mei Dao Hwei” – the ‘Beautiful Way Society,’ is founded as a self-governing Chinese church. Dr. Kilborn and Dr. Stevenson open a medical clinic at Sishengci Street, Chengtu.
1894	Kiating Central Station is opened by O.L. Kilborn. He is soon joined by Reverends V.C. Hart and J. Endicott.
1895	1895 – 1900 Period of unrest and upheavals in Szechwan. May, Anti-foreigner rioting in Chengtu. The Canadian Missionary compound is burned and looted. Houses, hospitals, chapels and schools are badly vandalised and /or destroyed. Missionaries take refuge in the magistrate’s yamen (courtyard) in the China Inland Mission Compound. Dr. Stevenson and Dr. Kilborn are put on trial. They are charged with drugging and murdering Chinese children to use their eyes, hearts and other body parts for medicine. The doctors are acquitted. Missionaries receive compensation for destroyed buildings. Money is raised as a levy on the peasantry. The anti-foreigner viceroy of Szechwan is also obliged to make payments to the missionaries. 13 men are beheaded and 40 men are imprisoned for their part in the attacks. The missionaries retreat to Shanghai. November, Dr. Hart and Rev. George Hartwell return to Szechwan to start to rebuild the CMM in Chengtu and Kiating.
1896	Canadian missionaries return to Chengtu. Dr. William Smith and his wife Grace arrive in Shanghai, journey on to Chengtu in January 1897. Begin rebuilding the Mission. Dr. Retta Gifford Kilborn opens Woman’s Missionary Society (WMS) dispensary and hospital for women and children. WMS opens a girls’ boarding school in Chengtu, admission requires that girls’ feet are not bound. Retta Kilborn establishes the Anti-footbinding Society; she serves as its first president.
1897	Missionaries return to West China to begin rebuilding the Canadian Mission. February, Dr. Hart brings two printing presses to Szechwan. Dr. Maud Killam arrives in Chengtu in 1897, takes over the WMS hospital and dispensary following Dr. Retta Kilborn’s resignation from the WMS Omar Kilborn reports on Canadian mission attacks to The Globe.
1899	West China Union University West China Union University, Chengtu is established (a union of all 7 Protestant missions in Szechwan) at the West China Mission Conference of 1899. WCUU to be a Chinese language university.
1900	Boxer Uprising. Anti-foreigner rallies and demonstrations take place in Chengtu. July, the British consul orders all foreigners to leave their compounds and proceed down river to Shanghai. Women Missionaries Conference, Shanghai.
1901	September, Dr. Anna Henry re-opens WMS hospital and dispensary (Dr. Killam is on furlough). Dr. Hart returns to Canada due to ill health.
1902	Young People’s Forward Movement for Missions established by C.W. Service, H.E. Warren, and F.C. Stephenson in Toronto.
1904	Kiating Mission Station is opened by C.W. Service. West China Mission Press brought to Chengtu by James Endicott.
1905	Junghsien Mission Station is opened by G.E. Hartwell. Jenshow Mission is opened by G.E. Hartwell.
1907	Penghsien Mission Station is opened by G.E. Hartwell. Tzeliutsing Mission Station is opened by R.O. Jolliffe.
1908	Luchow Mission Station founded by C.J.P. Jolliffe. Rev. Walter Small comes to Szechwan. Mr. Small takes on the role of chief engineer of WCUU from 1925 – 1950. Dr. A.W. Lindsay arrives in Chentu, opens the Renji Dental Clinic.
1909	February, Charles R. Carscallen, Canadian secretary of the Temporary Board of Management for WCUU, moves his family to a house on campus. The Canadian School opens in Chengtu. Miss Lela Kerr is Principal. There are 5 pupils.
1910	Chungking Mission Station is opened. The territory and the work by the London Missionary Society (LMS) in Szechwan province is transferred to the Canadian Missionary Society. March, West China Union University opens with 11 students. Alfred Johns is teaching Mathematics at WCUU Retta Kilborn is teaching Pharmacology and Toxicology. Omar Kilborn publishes Heal the Sick: an Appeal for Medical Missions in China. Dr. J.E. Thompson arrives in Chengtu, joins Dr. Lindsay as the second dentist missionary to West China.
1911	The London Missionary Society transfers the Chungchow Mission to the Canadian Methodist Mission. Dr. and Mrs. Wallace Crawford open the station. WCUU is closed. September, there is unrest in Szechwan due to a government railway project. Missionaries take refuge in Canadian Methodist Hospital, and then take refuge in Shanghai. November, Republican Revolution. The Nationalist revolution led by Sun Yat-sen overthrows the Qing Dynasty.
1912	January 1, Sun Yat-sen assumes office in Nanjing. January, Provincial delegates of the Revolutionary Alliance meet in Nanjing and choose a national council. February, Puyi, the boy Emperor, formally abdicates. The Republic of China is founded. February 14, Yuan Shikai (the last Qing premier) appointed provisional president of the Republic of China by the Parliament. Renji Dental Hospital opens in Chengtu. February, some of the Canadian missionaries return to Chengtu. April, Parliament declares Beijing as national capital. Homer G. Brown arrives in Chengtu, appointed Dean, Education Department, WCUU Dr. Omar Kilborn founds Chinese Red Cross in Szechwan to care for soldiers injured in the National Revolution.
1913	January 30, ‘Si Cheng Chi Men’s Hospital’ (Gospel Hospital of the Chinese Red Cross Society), opened in Chengtu . Struggles between Guomindang (National People’s Party) and Yuan Shikai’s government. 2nd Revolution, following assassination of Guomindang leader. Years of unstable government as Yuan Shikai attempts to consolidate his power leading to attempts to assume the title of Emperor in 1916. Fowchow Mission transferred from the LMS to CMM in 1910, re-opened under the supervision E.J. Carson. West China Union University re-opens. 17 students are enrolled in the arts and sciences course. Reverend James Endicott is appointed Secretary General of the Foreign Mission of the Canadian Methodist Church.
1914	Faculty of Medicine is established at WCUU by Dr. Service & Dr. Kilborn.
1915	Japan issues ‘Twenty-One Demands on China,’ extending Japanese economic rights in Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, and Japanese-Chinese joint administration of a coal and iron complex in central China. Start of anti-Japanese protests by students Yunan, Guizhou, Guangxi and other provinces proclaim independence from central government. Faculty of Religion opens at WCUU
1916	Sichuan and Shanxi proclaim independence from central government. June, Yuan Shikai dies.
1917	Canadian West China Mission is the largest mission in Chengtu with 177 members. Li Yuanhong succeeds Yuan Shikai. Zhang Xu, one of Yuan Shikai’s generals occupies Beijing. July 1, Puyi restored as Emperor, but deposed a few weeks later. Start of warlord rule. Dr. Alfred E. Best arrives in Szechwan, appointed Director of Renji Hospital in Fuling. August, Beijing government declares war on Germany. Creation of the Chinese Labour Corps. Gordon Jones ships to France as an officer of the Chinese Labour Corps. Homer G. Brown serves as an interpreter for the Chinese Labour Corps. Dentistry Department is established at WCUU.
1918	Faculty of Education opens at WCUU. Dr. Edwin Meuser founds Department of Pharmacy, WCUU. The Canadian School moves onto the WCUU campus in Huaxiba.
1920	Faculty of Dentistry opens at WCUU is founded by Dr. A. W. Lindsay. Enrollment in the University (excluding night courses) reaches 350. There are 40 buildings on the WCUU campus. April, Dedication of Hart Memorial College, the Canadian Methodist College.
1921	Earl Willmott is appointed teacher and principal of Sichuan Renshou County Huaying Middle School (1921 – 1952). Dr. Leslie Kilborn joins the medical mission of the Canadian West China Mission. E.W. Wallace is awarded a honourary DD by Victoria College. “Wallace of West China.” Reverend Wallace is appointed to the Burton Commission. He travels through north and central China, charged with creating a national system of Christian education.
1922	Dr. Albert Best is appointed Dean of Internal Medicine, WCUU
1924	1st Chinese Civil War (1924 – 1927). September, Female students are admitted to West China Union University.
1925	May, British police in the International Settlement of Shanghai fire on a rally of anti-foreigner, anti-Imperialist protesters. 11 people are killed, 50 arrested. The shooting sparks riots throughout China. Start of anti-foreigner and labour unrest in Shanghai and then Nanjing.
1926	June, Edith Sibley, a missionary in Chengtu, is brutally murdered. September, Wanshien incident involving a British merchant steamer on the Yangtze. The British merchant ship was stopped by a local warlord demanding it pay taxes (from which the foreign ships were exempt). Hostilities mounted, British Royal navy gunboats fired on Chinese troops. There were many casualties of Chinese troops and civilians. With the exception of the “Chengdu Five,” West China missionaries evacuate.
1927	Missionaries are advised to evacuate from Szechwan due to anti-foreigner unrest and uncertainty posed by Nationalist soldiers. August, Chinese civil war between the forces of the Nationalist army under Chiang Kai-Shek and the forces of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong, (1927 – 1937 ). Roy Spooner arrives in Chengtu to teach Chemistry at WCUU. Dental Hospital of WCUU is etablished.
1929	Nanking government rules that visas for missionaries will be extended to only those who have been invited back to registered, Chinese churches (Church of Christ in China). Nanking government decrees that the heads of all mission schools, Christian colleges and universities must be Chinese.
1930	Rev. Wallace is appointed Chancellor, Victoria College.
1932	College of Pharmacy established at WCUU
1936	Severe drought leads to famine in Szechwan. Dr. A.E. Best is appointed Director of Chengtu Renji Hospital. Lewis Walmsley, Leslie Kilborn, and Earl Willmott establish the annual Canadian School reunions. Dr. Spooner appointed Director of the Chemistry Department, WCUU.
1937	July, Chinese troops fire on a Japanese infantry unit at the Marco Polo Bridge, Wanping. Start of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War (1937 – 1945). December, Japanese forces enter Nanjing. Chinese National government relocates to Chungking. Jim Endicott becomes government advisor to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, fosters the New Life Movement.
1938	December, Chiang Kai-Shek reaches Chungking. Chungking serves as the capital of China during the Second Sino- Japanese War, (1938 - 1945). December, Burma Road opens. The Burma Road is the only reliable supply route for the Nationalists. Spring, Frank Dickinson, Biology professor WCUU, arranges for a panda bear (Pandora) to be sent to the New York Zoological Society.
1939	The Canadian School moves to Mount Omei due to Japanese bombing in Chengtu. June, West China Union University is badly damaged in an air strike by Japanese bombers. Canadian School subsequently relocates to Jenshow, 1939 – 1943.
1941	December, Japan attacks the United States at Pearl Harbour.
1942	Dr. C. William Service and Norma Ena Service are appointed to Chengdu, Canadian Mission.
1945	September, Japan surrenders following atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet invasion of Japanese-held Manchuria. Dr. C. William Service appointed Superintendent of Chungking Hospital.
1946	July, resumption of the Chinese Civil War (1946 – 1949).
1947	Canadian School reopens in Chengtu, 1947 – 1950. 1947 – 1952 Exodus of Chinese missionaries. 10,000 Protestant missionaries in mainland China in 1947.
1949	October, Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong establishes the People’s Republic of China. Beijing is the capital of China. October – December, the Nationalist government flees from Guangzhou to Chungking. In December the Nationalists withdraw to Taiwan. The Canadian School closes.
1950	June, work begins on the Chengtu – Chungking railway. Railway opens in 1952. June, start of the Korean War.
1951	Spring, Canadian Mission to West China closed by the United Church of Canada. October, West China Union University becomes West China People’s University under President Lu Chen-chao (formerly head of the Biology Department at WCUU). Remaining Canadian Missionary couples in West China: Earl and Katharine Willmott, Bill and Betty Small, Drs. Leslie and Jean Kilborn, Dr. Harrison and Bea Mullett.
1952	All missionaries are expelled by the Chinese Communist government

Edward Wilson Wallace, possibly 1896 Credit: Wallace Family Fonds (Victoria Archives).

Missionaries in Chungking, [1890s] Credit: Kilborn / Walmsley Family.

Missionaries on board a steamer, [about 1910] Credit: Johns Family.

Atherton Biology and Preventive Medicine building, West China Union University, Chengtu. 1910 Credit: United Church Archives.

Scene in Chengtu, 1911 Credit: Johns Family.

Wheelbarrow with back, ready for a passenger, 1910 Credit: Johns Family.

Luchow School Students, 1911 Credit: Jones Family / Jean Zamin.

Luchow pre 1914 [ panorama] Credit: Jones Family / Jean Zamin.

Crowd at the laying of the Corner Stone for the Canadian School, Chengtu, 1918 Credit: Johns Family.

The First Preparatory Conference of our West China Missions, [Junghsien,May 1918] Credit: Bridgman Family.

Peiling County, Comemmorative Farewell for Rev. Bridgman, 1919 Credit: Bridgman Family.