London Missionary Society Research Articles

Improvisations of Empire: Thomas Pringle in Scotland, the Cape Colony and London, 1789–1834 by Matthew Shum

Reviewed by: Improvisations of Empire: Thomas Pringle in Scotland, the Cape Colony and London, 1789–1834 by Matthew Shum Malcolm Jack Matthew Shum, Improvisations of Empire: Thomas Pringle in Scotland, the Cape Colony and London, 1789–1834 (London and New York: Anthem Press, 2020). Pp. 232. $125 cloth. Thomas Pringle (1789–1834) made what was probably the most significant decision of his life in deciding to join the settlers emigrating to the Cape Colony in 1820. His early life had begun modestly on a farm in rural Roxburghshire amidst pastoral and secluded scenery. Although the young man rode to school on horseback, it seems that he was lame from an early age. Josiah Condor, his first biographer, remarks in his Biographical Sketch that his incurable lameness caused Pringle much suffering and made it seem unlikely that he would become a traveller to distant lands.1 Yet he did become a traveler to the remote eastern province of the Cape colony on the southern tip of Africa. His lameness also had one good result: as he could not work on the land, like his siblings, he went instead to grammar school and then eventually to Edinburgh University to study classics. However, the precocious Pringle was already writing verse and more interested in literature than in the ancient languages. He formed a literary club and his circle included John Fairbairn, someone who was to figure again in his Cape Town days. Instead of a career in the professions, Pringle entered the frenetic world of journalism, first with the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine (later called Blackwood’s) and then the Edinburgh Magazine. Unfortunately, he managed to make enemies of several influential publishers so that his career as a writer was virtually over by the time the announcement was made about the proposed settlement in the Albany district of the Eastern Cape. By this time Pringle had made various South African contacts through Alexander Waugh, one of the founders of the London Missionary Society and knew of their work, particularly that of Dr John Philip. Pringle’s financial situation, without a stable job, was precarious. The advertisement for the settlers’ scheme, painting the Cape as a terrestrial paradise, no doubt influenced by William Burchell’s testimony to a House of Commons Committee inquiring into the matter, was tempting. Pringle and other members of his family set off for the distant colony. Matthew Shum begins his book, well-researched but overladen with references, on the links between Pringle’s Scottish writing and that of his time in South Africa, much of which was written in London after his return to Britain in 1826. He begins by labelling Pringle as a “minor Scottish poet” (10) who is already writing in the British imperial tradition, setting aside indigenous Scottish culture exemplified in the verse of “Rabbie” Burns. Pringle’s latent colonialism is most apparent in his attitude to the gypsies, “vagrant hordes” (24) who have failed to adapt to European culture. The background to this thinking is the “four stages theory” enunciated by eighteenth-century Scottish philosophers whereby society progresses from a state of savagery to that of commercial politeness. Some sections of society—such as the gypsies and the Scottish Highlanders—contribute nothing to this progress, a view that could be applied, in the colonial setting, to the indigenous peoples of the Cape. At the same time, Shum is also keen to show that Pringle was class-conscious, having a low opinion of the British laborers and artisans who were also emigrants to the Albany settlement. Shum’s revisionist mission now becomes clear. He intends to demolish Pringle’s reputation as a liberal humanitarian, presented by writers like Randolph Vigne, whose biography he dismisses on the grounds that it is too laudatory, and [End Page 1061] Timothy Keegan, who puts Pringle in the pantheon of liberal heroes.2 In a very revealing moment, Shum says that his intention “is not to expose him [Pringle] as a hypocrite or to question the sincerity of his later humanitarian claims” (52). But that is exactly what he does. In the second section of his book we have arrived in the Cape: Shum concentrates on a detailed analysis of Pringle’s...

In Memoriam

In Memoriam Emma Lapsansky-Werner, J. William Frost, and Charles Cherry Memorial Minute for Hugh Stewart Barbour Emma Lapsansky-Werner Hugh Stewart Barbour of Sleepy Hollow, New York, departed this life on January 8, 2021, at the age of 99. Born in Beijing, China on August 7, 1921, Hugh was the son of George Brown Barbour, a geologist renowned for his study of Chinese stratigraphy, and his wife, Dorothy Dickinson Barbour–a religious-education teacher at Hartford Theological Seminary. Inspired by the lives of his parents—who, shortly after their marriage, were dispatched by the London Missionary Society to Peking, China where they worked with the Famine Relief Commission—Hugh Barbour pursued a long and prolific intellectual and religious career as Professor of Religion at Earlham College and Professor of Church History at Earlham School of Religion. Like his parents, Hugh was a "hands-on" intellectual, serving on the Friends Historical Association publications committee, and on the editorial board of Quaker History, as well as contributing articles and book reviews to Quaker History. Often collaborating with colleagues to synthesize his extensive knowledge into texts for undergraduate and popular audiences, Hugh also teamed up with archivists and librarians to democratize access to Quaker documents. Not one to hide in an academic ivory tower, Hugh has been described by one admirer as "concerned for the contemporary world of Friends, [devoting] vast chunks of time to Indiana Yearly Meeting, and to Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting, as well as to Friends United Meeting, Friends General Conference, and Friends World Committee for Consultation. He was convinced that Friends of all types could find common ground, which sometimes [End Page 138] led him to witness in unlikely places, like the Realignment Conference in Des Moines in the early 1990s." While Google Scholar documents more than 16,000 instances of Hugh's scholarly contributions to, and intersections with, a larger scholarly community—including several widely-cited articles in Quaker History—Hugh's friends, protégés, students, colleagues and admirers also remembered his "encyclopedic knowledge of an extraordinary range of topics," and his broad grasp of "the totality of Quaker history." Awarded his doctorate in 1952, from Yale University, for his dissertation on "The Early Quaker Outlook Upon 'the World' and Society, 1647–1662," the devoted-and-distinguishedscholar Hugh published continuously—independently and collaboratively—for the next six decades. But Hugh was not only a distinguished scholar. Those who knew him celebrated his teaching, his personal kindness, and his way of being "an extraordinarily generous person, always willing to share his time, books, and suggestions for research." Beloved by his students (who often were the children of his former students!), one observer noted: "and yes, [he was loved for] his endearing absent-mindedness." The community of scholars-of-religion was much enriched by Hugh Barbour's sojourn on this earth. Hugh is survived by Sirkka, his wife of more than 60 years; by his daughters Elisa, Celia and Maida; and by three grandchildren. [End Page 139] Memorial Minute for Kenneth Carroll J. William Frost Kenneth Lane Carroll (1924–2021) will be remembered as a scholar of the Bible, an historian of Quakers, and a longtime supporter of Friends Historical Association for which he served as board member, vice-president, and president from 1989 to 2012. He endowed the Carroll prize given every three years for the most significant article in Quaker History and in his will left collections of books and archives to the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College and the Maryland Room of the Talbot County Free Library. His scholarship, expressed in books and dozens of articles, eschewed broad interpretations as he focused on important topics including the history of Friends on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, John Perrot, antislavery and early Irish Quakers. He also rescued individuals and topics from obscurity: Thomas Loe, Robert Southeby, the Nicolites, Elizabeth Hooten, Quakers in Venice. Born in Easton, Maryland, Carroll learned about the rough side of life early because his father became sheriff and the family lived in the same building as the jail. In his autobiography (2017), he tells of how his father saved a prisoner from a lynch mob. As a young man, he worked...

Metode Dakyah Kristian di Pulau Pinang Pada Abad ke-19: Kajian Terhadap Karya-Karya Terpilih Thomas Beighton (1790-1844)

The British settlement in Penang in the 1790s had led to the introduction of Christianity from various sects, mainly Protestant which consisted of multiple missionary societies. Amongst the most active was the London Missionary Society (LMS). However, the research conducted on LMS especially among the local researchers is minimal due to the lack of sources which are only available in certain libraries in London. Therefore, this study aims to introduce 10 works of Thomas Beighton (1790–1844) which were written in Malay Jawi. These sources highlighted the importance of this language as an element of Malay identity in Penang. Hence, textual analysis, classification and comparison methods employed by using ATLAS.ti were done to identify the preaching methods that are often used in these works. The results indicated that there were three main methods; highlighting of the similarities between Islam and Christianity, the misrepresentation of the image of Islam and the Malays, and promoting of Western ethics and Christianity as a solution in life. However, the Beighton’s mission failed when the LMS Malay Missionary Station in the region had to be closed down and consequently, they turned their attention to China in 1843.

Potyczki z imperium. Działalność Komitetu Narodowego Polskiego na terenie Wielkiej Brytanii (1917-1919)

Aim of the article is to present a general overview of the activity of the Polish National Committee (Komitet Narodowy Polski – KPN) in Great Britain in the final years of the First World War and in the first months of existence of the reborn Polish state (October 1917–January 1919). The introduction contains a brief preview of the structure of the Committee, as well as a general analyze of the activity of the Polish politicians in Great Britain in the years 1914-1917 (especially Roman Dmowski and August Zaleski). The main part of the text focuses on the presentation of the Mission of the Polish National Committee in London, including a special role of the main delegate, Władysław Sobański. The article discusses his political contacts with the British government, primarily with the Foreign Office. Synthetically presented are also the activities of the Committee in the field of taking care of Polish civilians and prisoners of war in Great Britain, as well as actions undertaken in the fields of economics and press. The analysis leads to a summarizing reflection on the Polish-British relations in that time.

Ivan Petrushevich’s Forgotten Project at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives: A Note

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the Ivan Petrushevich papers at the Hoover Institution. The collection includes printed materials, correspondence, documents, and clippings related to Ukraine, specifically addressing questions about Ukraine’s territory after World War I, the Paris Peace Conference, Ukrainian Diplomatic Missions in London and Paris, the development of cooperatives (as a movement) in Ukraine and Canada, and finally, the political and social life of Ukrainians in Canada and the United States (1913–1940). The Petrushevich papers are a rich primary source of information regarding political events and various Ukrainian subjects during the interwar period.

MANTRA: development and localization of a mobile educational health game targeting low literacy players in low and middle income countries

BackgroundMobile technology is increasingly important for delivering public health interventions to remote populations. This research study developed, piloted, and assessed a serious game for mobile devices that teaches geohazard, maternal, and neonatal health messages. This unique mHealth intervention aimed at low-literacy audiences in low resource settings is part of the Maternal and Neonatal Technologies in Rural Areas (MANTRA) project: Increasing maternal and child health resilience before, during, and after disasters using mobile technology in Nepal.MethodsThe serious game was developed through a co-creation process between London and Kathmandu based researchers by email and video-calling, and face-to-face with local stakeholders in Nepal. The process identified core needs, developed appropriate pictograms and mechanics, and tailored the pilot serious game to the local cultural context. Evaluations and feedback from end users took place in rural villages and suburban Kathmandu in Province Three. Field evaluation sessions used mixed methods. Researchers observed game play and held focus group discussions to elicit qualitative feedback and understand engagement, motivation, and usability, and conducted a paired pre- and post-game knowledge assessment.ResultsThe MANTRA serious game is contextualized to rural Nepal. The game teaches 28 learning objectives in three modules: maternal health, neonatal health, and geohazards, through picture matching with immediate audio and visual feedback. User feedback from focus groups demonstrated high engagement, motivation, and usability of the game.ConclusionsThis MANTRA study is a unique mHealth intervention of a serious game to teach core health and geohazards messages to low-literacy audiences in rural Nepal. Although the mobile game is tailored for this specific context, the developmental process and insights could be transferable to the development of other games-based interventions and contextualized for any part of the world. Successfully targeting this low-literacy and illiterate audience makes the MANTRA development process the first of its kind and a novel research endeavor with potential for widespread impact and adoption following further game development.Trial registrationThis project was approved by the University College London Ethics Committee in London, United Kingdom [10547/001], and the Nepal Health Research Council in Kathmandu, Nepal [Reg. No. 105/2017]. All participants provided informed written consent.

Smallpox Vaccine and Resident Responses in Modern Shanghai: Focusing on Regional and Cultural Comparison.

In modern Shanghai, smallpox was one of the most threatening diseases with its mortality rate going up to 30 percent. In response to the disease, Dr. William Lockhart, a medical missionary of the London Missionary Society, introduced vaccination to the Chinese people in Shanghai. He built the first western style hospital in Shanghai, Renji Hospital, in 1843. At this time, native doctors also played a very important role. For example, Huang Chun-pu was in charge of the dispensary in the Chinese City in Shanghai, and he was the one who introduced vaccination under Dr. Lockhart's direction. In 1868, the Health Office of Shanghai Municipal Council began to implement a vaccination program. Around the turn of the 20th century, the Health Office of Shanghai Municipal Council managed several sub-district offices, hospitals, dispensaries, gaol, and even the traditional place like simiao for the free vaccinations. Urban residents benefited from a sanitary system, such as wide and free vaccination, compared to people who lived in rural areas. Moreover, Shanghai possessed the advantage of having the vaccine as a staple product of the Municipal Laboratory. The number of units of the vaccine issued from the Laboratory in sequence of years from 1898 to 1920 has been 115,351 on average. Unlike the International Settlement, where systematic inoculation was conducted under the leadership of the Municipal Council, the Chinese City was still reliant on charity organizations in the early 1900s. The foreign residence in the International Settlement had a strong influence from the foreign governments, and foreign doctors were well-aware of the need for the vaccination. However, the Chinese City was a Chinese enclave that was still under the traditional rule of the Qing Dynasty. In addition, the people of Shanghai had different perceptions of the smallpox vaccination, and this became an obstacle to the establishment of urban sanitation systems. Some Chinese people still relied on the traditional Chinese variolation and Chinese custom. For example, Chinese people still applied for inoculation in the spring and avoided summer and fall following traditional Chinese variolation, even though the best time to get vaccinated was in early winter before the spread of smallpox. In addition, foreigners were often more problematic than Chinese because they often overlooked the importance of vaccines and relied on drugs instead. The municipal authority, therefore, provided a wide range of free vaccinations for the poor and needy people regardless of their nationalities, and with such measures, sought to establish a stable urban sanitation system. This had been the key to the success of hygiene policies.

The English Catholic Church and the Age of Mercantilism: Bishop Richard Challoner and the South Sea Company

Abstract This article argues that the commercial economy contributed to sustain the English Catholic Church during the eighteenth century. In particular, it analyzes the financial dealings of Bishop Richard Challoner, Vicar Apostolic of the London Mission (1758-1781). By investing in the stock market, Challoner funded charitable institutions and addressed the needs of his church. He used the profits yielded by the Sea Companies for a variety of purposes: from basic needs such as buying candles, to long-term projects such as funding female schools. Bishop Challoner contributes to a new narrative on Catholicism in England and enriches the literature on the Mercantilist Age. The new Atlantic economy offered an opening and Catholics seized it. By answering the needs of the new fiscal-state, the Catholic Church ensured its survival, secured economic integration, and eventually achieved political inclusion.

A visit of Christian missionaries at Mount Wutai: Mongol Buddhism from a cross-cultural perspective

ABSTRACT James Gilmour (1842–1891) was a Scottish missionary of London Missionary Society who carried out his mission assiduously among Mongols and Han-Chinese north of the Great Wall from 1870 until 1891. He was among the most well-known missionaries of his time, in part because of the exoticism of Mongolia, but also because he failed to convert even one Mongol during his lifetime. Thwarting his missionary ambition was precisely Mongolian Buddhism that Mongols followed ardently and which Gilmour persistently sought to understand. In 1872, Gilmour and his fellow missionary John Edkins travelled to Mount Wutai, the most sacred place for Mongol Buddhists. This article draws on the essay that Gilmour wrote after this journey, titled ‘Wu T’ai Shan.’ The essay contains his detailed observations of pilgrims, lamas and monasteries at Mount Wutai, and his reflection on Mongol Buddhism in general. Overall, Gilmour is critical, if not condemnatory towards Mongol Buddhism, especially towards lamas. This judgement, as we will see, though reflective of certain historical facts, is cloaked with his prejudices as a Christian missionary. Gilmour’s writing is a rare account of the historic moment when Christianity met Mongol Buddhism, which is all the more valuable considering the lack of similar records in the Chinese and Mongol language.

Silent No Longer

AbstractThis article, arising from the work of the Council for World Mission's Legacies of Slavery project, investigates the historical roots of racism present in the work of the London Missionary Society (LMS). It offers an analysis of the ways in which a missionary society colluded with Empire in constructing a racist hierarchy that it imposed on White people at home in the United Kingdom as much as it did on African and African descendant peoples. It acknowledges the personal and structural benefits that the LMS and its officers made from enslavement and their efforts to silence calls for emancipation, and offers a class and gender perspective on the forces shaping this distinctively British organization.

The Role of the London Missionary Society and Church Missionary Society in the Abolition of Oozhiyam (Bonded Labor Service) in Kerala

Bonded labor is the most widespread form of slavery in the world. It is at once the most ancient and most contemporary face of human servitude. In India, 'labor' is more a social category than economics, where the division of labor and laborer is defined according to the caste. The caste system is not a scientific division of labor, which is, after all, necessary for the efficient functioning of any economy. It is an arbitrary, birth-determined hierarchy in which different types of laborers are graded one above the other and subject to a descending scale of civil disabilities that have nothing to do with efficiency or productivity. It is not a division based on choice, as individual sentiment, preference, or even actual skill, have no place in it. Caste slavery was an oppressive, discriminative, and exploitive system which existed in Kerala from an early medieval period onwards. In the social structure of Kerala, the bonded or forced labor system was an unavoidable factor of slavery. As the system of bonded labor was associated with feudalism, land-based social relations were formed in the state. The oozhiyam or bonded labor system, therefore strictly connected with the caste oriented slavery in Kerala. Under the system of oozhiyam, the economically under-privileged servants were obliged to render bonded services on all days of the week as required by the government officials and the higher castes. The main force behind this system was the coercive authority of the government and the privileged class. Nobody dared to evade the services demanded by the government. Only on the days of the oozhiyam services, the laborers received a minimum quantity of food to keep their body and soul together. This essay mainly focuses on the ameliorating activities of the Christian missionaries, such as the London Missionary Society (LMS) and Church Missionary Society (CMS), among the oppressed sections of the society of Kerala. In addition to the social legislations of the government, the intervention of Christian missionaries also helped in the permanent abolition of the system of oozhiyam in Kerala.

Masters and Servants: The Hudson's Bay Company and Its North American Workforce, 1668–1786 by Scott P. Stephen

Reviewed by: Masters and Servants: The Hudson's Bay Company and Its North American Workforce, 1668–1786 by Scott P. Stephen Scott Berthelette Scott P. Stephen, Masters and Servants: The Hudson's Bay Company and Its North American Workforce, 1668-1786 (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press 2019) In Masters and Servants, Scott P. Stephen has probed the voluminous archival holdings of the Hudson's Bay Company (correspondence, minute books, accounts, and post journals) to unpack the nitty-gritty details of labour relations within the Hudson's Bay Company during the corporation's long first century (1668-1786). Stephen's central argument is that the Hudson's Bay Company's labour relations were underwritten by deep-rooted understandings [End Page 203] of master-servant relationships within a household setting and that Company posts should be construed as "household factories." Indeed, as Stephen demonstrates, the patriarchal household family made up of a master (the patriarch) and a family of kin, apprentices, and servants, was the dominant social construct of early modern Britain and its overseas colonies and trading companies. As Stephen demonstrates, the hbc's household factory was diverse. Hudson's Bay Company servants were not just Londoners and Orcadians, but also Canadien voyageurs who had absconded from French posts, Inuit and Chipewyan captives sold to factors by Lowland Cree raiders, and even the "mixed-blood" sons of hbc fathers and Indigenous mothers. The labour requirements of hbc factories were also diverse. The London Committee, governors, and factors demanded servants that could fulfill a variety of roles such as general labourers, mariners, officers, clerks, surgeons, and myriad tradesmen—armourers, bricklayers, carpenters, coopers, gunsmiths sawyers, shipwrights, and tailors—as well as more specialized labour in the form of birchbark canoe-makers and linguistic and cultural interpreters. Stephen's study outlines two major periods of the Company's history. The period from the 1670 charter to the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht was marked by an initial flurry of development along the Hudson Bay littoral followed by massive instability in both recruitment and retention of labour due to wartime conditions and French bayside military excursions. The second period, following the peace of 1713, was marked by much-needed stability and security and saw the Company's labour needs expanded and diversified as it established slooping (coastal trading) operations, whale fisheries, and several inland trading houses—Henley House (1743), Flamborough House (1749), and Cumberland House (1774). Stephen's analysis ends in 1786 when the hbc created the position of chief inland factor, which shifted the managerial centre of gravity and reoriented the balance of power of the coastal household factory. Stephen does a particularly good job at drawing comparisons of labour relations to early modern Britain and other long-distance British trading companies, like the East Indian Company (eic), Royal African Company (rac), and the Levant Company, to show how the masterservant relationship and the household system reflected larger trends in British imperialism. Unfortunately, Stephen does not provide a sense of whether there was something uniquely British about the household factory, and does not venture into French, Dutch, Spanish Atlantic Worlds to juxtapose the hbc's model of household governance against non-British trading companies, such as the French Compagnie du Nord, which operated in Hudson Bay alongside the hbc for decades. The lack of transnational or trans-imperial comparison opens the question as to how French or Canadien Company servants, like Jean-Baptise D'Laryea and Louis Primeau (whose careers are outlined by Stephen), saw themselves fitting into the structures of the household system with its reciprocal obligations, deferential and paternalistic behaviours, and social and moral covenants. To Stephen's credit, however, he does a much better job at teasing out social relations between the Homeguard Cree and the hbc, demonstrating how the Cree often imposed their own conceptions of kinship through marriage alliances in order to create reciprocal social connections on unwitting hbc factors and servants, which produced tensions within the household factory that mandated that servants remained celibate. [End Page 204] While the "household factory" produced a remarkably secure and stable political-economic entity that connected the Hudson Bay watershed fur trade economy to the larger British Atlantic World, Stephen...

Missionaries and other emissaries of colonialism in Tuvalu

This paper examines the similarities and differences between the forms of external rule established in nineteenth-century Tuvalu first by the London Missionary Society and then by the British government through its imperial outreach. These raise the question of whether or not the two forms can be characterised as essentially the same and, if so, what implications are posed for the periodisation of history in Tuvalu and other Pacific societies.

Mindolo Mission of the London Missionary Society: Origins, Development, and Initiatives for Ecumenism

This paper considers the origins and development of Mindolo Mission of the London Mission Society in Zambia. First, the factors that led to the formation of the mission are analyzed. Second, the paper traces the shifts in ownership of Mindolo Mission and the negotiations to attain church union and increased ecumenism resulting in the foundation of the Church of Central Africa in Rhodesia (CCAR), United Church of Central Africa in Rhodesia (UCCAR), the formation of Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation (MEF) and the United Church of Zambia (UCZ). Third, the present paper discusses the ownership of the mission land. The paper concludes that Mindolo Mission is an offspring of the ecumenical movement and the churches who were the forerunners of the UCZ and the MEF.

Cultural Technologies: The long and unexpected life of the Christian mission encounter, North China, 1900–30

AbstractThis article uses the case of the London Missionary Society (LMS) in China to argue that disruptive cultural technologies—namely organizational forms and tools—were just as significant within Christian mission encounters as religious doctrines or material technologies. LMS missionaries did not convert as many Chinese to Christianity as they hoped, but their auxiliary efforts were more successful. The LMS mission project facilitated the transfer of certain cultural technologies such as church councils to administer local congregations or phonetic scripts to facilitate literacy. Once in the hands of native Christians and non-Christians alike, these cultural technologies could be freely adapted for a variety of purposes and ends that often diverged from the missionaries’ original intent and expectation. This article draws on the letters and reports of missionaries of the London Missionary Society in North China from roughly 1900 to 1930—the period during which self-governing Protestant congregations took root in China and many places around the world. The spread of church government structures and a culture of Bible-reading enabled Chinese within the mission sphere to create new forms of collective life. These new forms of community not only tied into local networks, but also connected to transnational flows of information, finances, and personnel. Native Christian communities embraced new, alternative sources of community authority—the power of God working through a group of ordinary people or through the biblical text—that proved both attractive and disruptive.

Western Establishment or Chinese Sovereignty? The Tientsin Anglo-Chinese College during the Restore Educational Rights Movement, 1924–7

The 1920s were a vital period for the evolution of Christianity in China, during which the Anti-Christian Movement of 1922–7 brought Christianity under serious attack. A new conception of nationalism, influenced by Lenin's theory of imperialism, dramatically changed the way in which Christianity (and especially mission schools) was regarded, from being viewed as a positive factor in China's modernization to being seen as a hated cultural imperialist invasion. The period from 1924 to 1927 featured the demand for the restoration of educational rights, during which the identity of mission schools was used to stir up nationalist hatred. This article takes Tientsin Anglo-Chinese College (TACC) of the London Missionary Society (LMS) as a case study. It examines how the TACC missionary authorities responded to nationalistic sentiments emerging within the college and in society, and how they reacted towards the compulsory registration and consequent abolition of compulsory school religious education. It explores key issues behind the interaction between mission schools and the socio-political context, such as how TACC reconstructed its identity during the process of school registration, and how it negotiated with the Ministry of Education under the tension between two divergent approaches of Christianizing and nationalizing mission schools, a tension which became acute as a consequence of the application of regulations making school religious education and practice optional.

From Pacific to traffic islands: challenging Australia’s colonial use of the ocean through creative protest

The Australian High Commission in London, located in an imposing, heritage-listed building known as Australia House, works to project a positive national image in its colonial motherland. Australia House has been the subject of a number of creative protests which utilise the building’s location on a traffic island to draw attention to Australia’s colonial use of the ocean as part of its ongoing mission to reign supreme as a white island in the otherwise racialised south Pacific. The protests draw attention to the violence Australia seeks to conceal in the distant island refugee prison camps on Manus and Nauru, and use the place of Australia House in the heart of London to “bring home” the historical colonial dimensions of Australia as a place today. Reading the protests through the lens of critical geography and legal history, we argue that the protests work to disrupt the business of the Australian High Commission by maneuvering the physical space of and around Australia House such that they memorialize, expose and interrupt the racist violence which the High Commission seeks to hide.

Making the visual record of New Guinea: William G. Lawes’s photographic encounters

ABSTRACT Missionary relationships with local populations following annexation of Pacific places by imperial powers involved intense interactions with potential and actual converts. Reverend William G. Lawes of the London Missionary Society and other New Guinea missionaries supplied photographs from the field to anthropologists and to the secular press. How such images were created in situ demands detailed study. This article examines embodied encounters involving the camera between Lawes and Papuans of the Port Moresby mission district and ambiguous materializations of such encounters in the physical mediums of glass plates and paper. Investigating photographic equipment and materials, place and climate, and their impact in early photographic encounters reveals the complexity of such meetings of European/missionary, Papuans, and camera technology in which Indigenous populations frequently shaped the visual conception of their land and their persons.

Mary and William Pool and their (mostly her) Malagasy lichen and plant collections

William and Mary (née Crage) Pool spent the decade from 1865 to 1875 in Madagascar as missionaries employed by the London Missionary Society. For amusement, Mrs Pool collected lichen and plant specimens, which her husband eventually donated to Kew. Even though Mrs Pool collected most of these specimens, her husband invariably receives credit: his name appears on the labels of plants collected by her, and her collections are attributed to him in a number of contemporary publications.

Revisiting Christian Missionaries in the Straits Settlements: Blurring the Boundaries between Empire, Mission and Development

This article takes two exemplars of Christian missionaries in early colonial Singapore, Penang and Melaka—the London Missionary Society (LMS) (from 1815) and the Infant Jesus Sisters (IJS) (from 1854)—to examine the complex entanglements of missionaries and empire. I argue that they had a wider impact than evangelism and can be usefully conceptualized as faith-based development organizations. The LMS operated the first printing presses in the region and whilst its purpose was evangelical, its translations, technical innovations and printing activities extended its impact. The IJS established schools for girls, an orphanage and a women’s refuge, operating as a faith-based organization focused on the education of girls, reduction in child mortality and the empowerment of women. By viewing these early missionaries within a broader context and through the lens of development, their roles as nascent development organizations become more visible.