[Dorothy Jean Purry]

A small notebook containing the account of a female missionary working in southern China in the 1920s and 1930s. The missionary would appear to be Dorothy Purry who was involved in Women's Work for the (Wesleyan) Methodist Missionary Society in their South China District and specifically within the Canton Circuit.

The first two-thirds of the notebook is an account of Purry's experiences as a missionary principally between 1929 and 1935 and focuses on her literary, educational and evangelical work. She also records the work of her Chinese colleagues, who are principally bible women and teachers. Much of the discussion of her and her colleagues work also reflects on the political situation in China in the 1920s and 1930s.

The last third has general notes, the vast majority of which are extracts from Joy Homer's 1941 publication 'Dawn Watch in China'.

The notebook contains three inserts: two additional dated entries from 1935 and a small copy of A J May's 1934 design for a Methodist Church on Hennessey Road in Hong Kong.

Dorothy Jean Purry was born on 30 October 1886 and became a Methodist at an early age. She trained as a teacher and applied to serve as a missionary with the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society. Once the Society had accepted her she was appointed to work in their South China District, leaving England in October 1913.

Her work, principally in and around Canton [Guangzhou], focused on providing a Christian education to children and women. She was also involved in the training of teachers and bible women who would then assist in educational and evangelical work amongst women and children. Purry also provided some help with non-medical work in the mission's hospital. Purry, like many British missionaries, was interned by the Japanese in 1943, probably at the Oriental Missionary Society in Canton. After liberation she returned to England in 1946 and died in September 1961.

Open

Catalogued

For permission to publish, please contact Archives & Special Collections, SOAS Library in the first instance

Copyright held by Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes

Gift to Methodist Church Overseas Division from Mrs Enid Crawford Walters, 26 May 1982