Page 120 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 120
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
had hard work to keep a straight face until we had said our farewells (she made no attempt to keep
us) and were outside the house. The children had looked at me with mystified questions in their eyes
as I said all the polite things to Aunt Mary, but the moment we were out on the street they both burst
out ‘What is it, Mummy? Why aren’t we staying for tea?’ I explained what had happened and
fortunately they saw the funny side too, and we rolled down the street trying to control our mirth. It
wasn’t so funny though as we had no tea at home (I had booked ourselves out) it was Saturday
afternoon when shops in Australia at that time were almost all closed, and we searched in vain for a
milk bar where we could buy something. In the end we returned home and made some sandwiches
which we ate as a kind of picnic lunch in our bedroom. We have often laughed about it since.
Uncle’s shop was not a success. Auntie’s asthma persisted and, at last in 1954, they returned to
London where Jessie Mary still was. They left John Mark to continue his education in Brisbane. On
21 May 1955 Auntie Mary died. Uncle Arthur lived for a time with Jessie Mary and James Clark in
Ealing. Her third child was due in 1957, but one evening when she and James were getting ready to
go out, she bent down to pick something up and complained of a sharp pain in the back. Thinking her
child was about to be born, she was taken by ambulance to hospital, but although three doctors were
with her all night, she died at 6 am and so did the baby. She was only 27. James Clark legally
adopted Andrew Hollings as his own child and brought him up with his own Kate. After some years,
in 1963, he married again, Laurence Mary, and they have one daughter, Sybil Florence, born on 2
January 1964.
John Mark, in the meantime, became a quantity surveyor, and in 1962 he married a French girl,
Claudine Bosse, whom he had met on an Air France plane when she was a stewardess. John and
Claudine decided to migrate to Australia where their son Alan was born. Then John Mark turned to
chemical engineering and they spent periods in Antwerp, at Abadan in Iran and in England. John
never learnt to speak French, so Claudine kept up her English. In March 1973 they moved to a new
house in Burnley in Lancashire, but on the very first day they were there John Mark died suddenly of
an undiagnosed aneurism of the aorta. He was 38. Claudine sold the house and went back to
France and now lives in Paris.
In a letter to David Bentley-Taylor, Claudine commented, ‘John is 50% French, 25% Scottish and 25%
Russian. Do you see any sign there of a brilliant future?’
Arthur John Andrew, after Jessie Mary’s death, lodged with a widow called Laura Busby and in 1962
he married her. Laura had been crippled by polio, but was a determined and successful campaigner
for better facilities and opportunities for the disabled.
David and Dorothy Stephens and I drove down to Stithians beyond Truro in Cornwall during my 1973-
1975 visit to England. This is where Arthur and Laura had moved to from London, and we found them
in a delightful little cottage called ‘Forge Cottage’. It was the first time I had seen Uncle since he had
been with me in Sydney in 1952, and I was glad to get him reminiscing about his early life and his
father’s family. It was the last time I saw him as he died just before I returned to Australia at the end
of 1975
Further Notes on John Arthur Andrew
A letter from HW James who was half brother to Fanny (Riley) Andrew, wife of George Findlay
Andrew. It is dated October 1918 and is addressed to the Editor of the Chefoo Magazine:
“Dear Editor,
Return to Table of 120
Contents
Amy Moore
had hard work to keep a straight face until we had said our farewells (she made no attempt to keep
us) and were outside the house. The children had looked at me with mystified questions in their eyes
as I said all the polite things to Aunt Mary, but the moment we were out on the street they both burst
out ‘What is it, Mummy? Why aren’t we staying for tea?’ I explained what had happened and
fortunately they saw the funny side too, and we rolled down the street trying to control our mirth. It
wasn’t so funny though as we had no tea at home (I had booked ourselves out) it was Saturday
afternoon when shops in Australia at that time were almost all closed, and we searched in vain for a
milk bar where we could buy something. In the end we returned home and made some sandwiches
which we ate as a kind of picnic lunch in our bedroom. We have often laughed about it since.
Uncle’s shop was not a success. Auntie’s asthma persisted and, at last in 1954, they returned to
London where Jessie Mary still was. They left John Mark to continue his education in Brisbane. On
21 May 1955 Auntie Mary died. Uncle Arthur lived for a time with Jessie Mary and James Clark in
Ealing. Her third child was due in 1957, but one evening when she and James were getting ready to
go out, she bent down to pick something up and complained of a sharp pain in the back. Thinking her
child was about to be born, she was taken by ambulance to hospital, but although three doctors were
with her all night, she died at 6 am and so did the baby. She was only 27. James Clark legally
adopted Andrew Hollings as his own child and brought him up with his own Kate. After some years,
in 1963, he married again, Laurence Mary, and they have one daughter, Sybil Florence, born on 2
January 1964.
John Mark, in the meantime, became a quantity surveyor, and in 1962 he married a French girl,
Claudine Bosse, whom he had met on an Air France plane when she was a stewardess. John and
Claudine decided to migrate to Australia where their son Alan was born. Then John Mark turned to
chemical engineering and they spent periods in Antwerp, at Abadan in Iran and in England. John
never learnt to speak French, so Claudine kept up her English. In March 1973 they moved to a new
house in Burnley in Lancashire, but on the very first day they were there John Mark died suddenly of
an undiagnosed aneurism of the aorta. He was 38. Claudine sold the house and went back to
France and now lives in Paris.
In a letter to David Bentley-Taylor, Claudine commented, ‘John is 50% French, 25% Scottish and 25%
Russian. Do you see any sign there of a brilliant future?’
Arthur John Andrew, after Jessie Mary’s death, lodged with a widow called Laura Busby and in 1962
he married her. Laura had been crippled by polio, but was a determined and successful campaigner
for better facilities and opportunities for the disabled.
David and Dorothy Stephens and I drove down to Stithians beyond Truro in Cornwall during my 1973-
1975 visit to England. This is where Arthur and Laura had moved to from London, and we found them
in a delightful little cottage called ‘Forge Cottage’. It was the first time I had seen Uncle since he had
been with me in Sydney in 1952, and I was glad to get him reminiscing about his early life and his
father’s family. It was the last time I saw him as he died just before I returned to Australia at the end
of 1975
Further Notes on John Arthur Andrew
A letter from HW James who was half brother to Fanny (Riley) Andrew, wife of George Findlay
Andrew. It is dated October 1918 and is addressed to the Editor of the Chefoo Magazine:
“Dear Editor,
Return to Table of 120
Contents
