Page 119 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 119
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
David Hollings, and in 1952 they were married. On 31 October of the same year their son Andrew
David was born, but seven months later in May 1953, David Hollings was accidentally drowned in the
Thames. Some say he fell off a plank leading from a barge where they had attended a party. Others
say that he accidentally stepped backwards when looking up at the mast he had helped to decorate.
Two years later on 4 June 1955, Jessie Mary married again, this time a man called James Clarke, who
worked with television. A daughter whom they named Kate, was born a year later on 28 June 1956,
and the family settled into a home in Ealing near London.
Meanwhile, because Mary suffered from asthma, Arthur Andrew had decided to emigrate to Australia.
In 1951 he wrote to Percy in Sydney where we were living at the time in the CIM home. Percy was the
CIM representative for NSW and I was in charge of the home. He wanted to know if we would sponsor
them for entry into Australia, which meant guaranteeing accommodation when they arrived, and that
they would find work, or we would be responsible for their support.
Uncle Arthur assured us that they would be independent of us as quickly as possible after they
arrived, and Percy felt he should do it. He wrote back agreeing to sponsor them on the understanding
that they could stay in the CIM home for a limited time only, and we would expect them to get a home
of their own as soon as possible. In the event, it was 1952 when Arthur and Mary and John Mark
eventually arrived in Sydney and, by that time, Percy was in Malaya as Superintendent of the work in
the New Villages there. So it fell to me to welcome them and to give them their first introduction to life
‘down under’.
They were a strange family whom I had never met before, and very different from the usual run of
guests we had at the CIM home. They all smoked, but were very thoughtful in confining it to their own
room so that the public sitting and dining rooms were not filled with smoke. Uncle Arthur spent a lot
of time quietly reading old copies of the CIM magazine the ‘Millions’ which he found on the
bookshelves, and I suppose he was reliving some of his father’s and his brother’s and sister’s
experiences, as they quite often featured in the ‘Millions’. Auntie Mary was a very unusual person
who was likely to come out with rather outrageous or questionable statements, but whether to shock
me or not, I was never quite sure. I took her as I found her and we really got on quite well together. I
never knew where they went when they went off for the day as happened quite often, but I presumed
they had business to attend to, and I asked no questions.
On one occasion I began to wonder if I should have been more curious for we had a visitor from the
Criminal Investigation Department who asked for an interview with Auntie Mary and asked me to be
present at it. He asked her a number of leading questions about her life in China and in Russia.
Some of her answers could easily have been construed as pro-Communist, though I was pretty sure
she had no Communist leadings, but it struck me as not being very wise at that time just after the
Communists had taken over China. Governments were naturally keeping their eyes open for
anybody who might have Communist sympathies. Our guest eventually departed and we heard no
more from him, but I have often wondered what he made of Auntie Mary! John Mark we saw little of,
and I think he was probably exploring Sydney as he had plenty of spare time.
They bought a shop in the Sydney suburb of Dulwich Hill and turned it into a small lending library cum
stationer’s shop, and the family lived in rooms above the shop. One Saturday afternoon Aunt Mary
invited me with Frank and Dorothy to come and have ‘tea’ with them. We made our way there and
were taken up through the shop to the living rooms above, furnished with some of their own furniture
from Tianjin. Because ‘tea’ on Saturdays meant to us a light evening meal, I had not realised that
what Auntie Mary had invited us to was ‘afternoon tea’, but as time went on I suddenly felt sure that
the drinks and biscuits she had provided was all we could expect!! The funny side struck me and I
119
Amy Moore
David Hollings, and in 1952 they were married. On 31 October of the same year their son Andrew
David was born, but seven months later in May 1953, David Hollings was accidentally drowned in the
Thames. Some say he fell off a plank leading from a barge where they had attended a party. Others
say that he accidentally stepped backwards when looking up at the mast he had helped to decorate.
Two years later on 4 June 1955, Jessie Mary married again, this time a man called James Clarke, who
worked with television. A daughter whom they named Kate, was born a year later on 28 June 1956,
and the family settled into a home in Ealing near London.
Meanwhile, because Mary suffered from asthma, Arthur Andrew had decided to emigrate to Australia.
In 1951 he wrote to Percy in Sydney where we were living at the time in the CIM home. Percy was the
CIM representative for NSW and I was in charge of the home. He wanted to know if we would sponsor
them for entry into Australia, which meant guaranteeing accommodation when they arrived, and that
they would find work, or we would be responsible for their support.
Uncle Arthur assured us that they would be independent of us as quickly as possible after they
arrived, and Percy felt he should do it. He wrote back agreeing to sponsor them on the understanding
that they could stay in the CIM home for a limited time only, and we would expect them to get a home
of their own as soon as possible. In the event, it was 1952 when Arthur and Mary and John Mark
eventually arrived in Sydney and, by that time, Percy was in Malaya as Superintendent of the work in
the New Villages there. So it fell to me to welcome them and to give them their first introduction to life
‘down under’.
They were a strange family whom I had never met before, and very different from the usual run of
guests we had at the CIM home. They all smoked, but were very thoughtful in confining it to their own
room so that the public sitting and dining rooms were not filled with smoke. Uncle Arthur spent a lot
of time quietly reading old copies of the CIM magazine the ‘Millions’ which he found on the
bookshelves, and I suppose he was reliving some of his father’s and his brother’s and sister’s
experiences, as they quite often featured in the ‘Millions’. Auntie Mary was a very unusual person
who was likely to come out with rather outrageous or questionable statements, but whether to shock
me or not, I was never quite sure. I took her as I found her and we really got on quite well together. I
never knew where they went when they went off for the day as happened quite often, but I presumed
they had business to attend to, and I asked no questions.
On one occasion I began to wonder if I should have been more curious for we had a visitor from the
Criminal Investigation Department who asked for an interview with Auntie Mary and asked me to be
present at it. He asked her a number of leading questions about her life in China and in Russia.
Some of her answers could easily have been construed as pro-Communist, though I was pretty sure
she had no Communist leadings, but it struck me as not being very wise at that time just after the
Communists had taken over China. Governments were naturally keeping their eyes open for
anybody who might have Communist sympathies. Our guest eventually departed and we heard no
more from him, but I have often wondered what he made of Auntie Mary! John Mark we saw little of,
and I think he was probably exploring Sydney as he had plenty of spare time.
They bought a shop in the Sydney suburb of Dulwich Hill and turned it into a small lending library cum
stationer’s shop, and the family lived in rooms above the shop. One Saturday afternoon Aunt Mary
invited me with Frank and Dorothy to come and have ‘tea’ with them. We made our way there and
were taken up through the shop to the living rooms above, furnished with some of their own furniture
from Tianjin. Because ‘tea’ on Saturdays meant to us a light evening meal, I had not realised that
what Auntie Mary had invited us to was ‘afternoon tea’, but as time went on I suddenly felt sure that
the drinks and biscuits she had provided was all we could expect!! The funny side struck me and I
119
