Page 124 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 124
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
THE THIRD GENERATION
PERCY AND AMY MOORE
PERCY’S STORY (15.10.1909 - 4.1.1972)
George Percival Moore was named George after his maternal grandfather, George Andrew and
Percival after his father’s younger brother. He was born on 15 October 1909 at Lanzhou in the
Province of Gansu in NW China where his parents were working as missionaries with the China Inland
Mission. Lanzhou was the capital of Gansu Province, a large city on the Yellow River. Percy’s
grandparents, George and Jessie Andrew was Field Superintendent in charge of the work and the
missionaries for all of Gansu, and the even more distant Xinjiang Province.
Percy’s birth was a difficult one for his mother. She was to have been cared for by the midwife for the
Province (Miss Mellor, I think), but his unexpectedly early arrival meant that the midwife had not
arrived. Esther, who was a midwife herself, with the help of medical books, had to instruct her father
how to deliver his grandson as he made his entry into the world. Esther, my mother-in-law, told me
the story herself. The afterbirth was not coming away and for the rest of that long October night, till
the doctor from the Lanzhou Christian Hospital could arrive, the old Chinese serving woman sat there
holding the end of the umbilical cord to prevent it slipping back! As Esther drifted in and out of
consciousness, she was vaguely aware of this immobile figure squatting by the side of the bed.
For the next year the Moore family remained in Lanzhou, but in January 1911, when Percy was a year
and three months old, they moved to Xining on the Tibetan border to relieve the Ridleys for furlough.
By February they were on their way back to Lanzhou for the birth of Jessie Mabel on 16 March 1911.
The family returned to Xining when Jessie was a month and a half old and Percy only eighteen
months. But three months later they were facing another upheaval when the lives of the whole family
were threatened by revolutionaries, members of Secret Societies who were determined to get rid of all
‘foreigners’. Around the city placards were pasted up urging people to kill them, and first on the list
were the names of Arthur and Esther Moore and their two children. In the mercy of God and through
the friendliness and strong stand taken by the local Government official, their lives were spared and
life in Xining returned to normal.
Not for long however. By the end of the year 1911, trouble was again brewing when a large band of
anti-foreign brigands decided to kill the foreigners and burn down the Mission home. It was the year
when there was unrest all over China, the year of the Republic. In Gansu it was decided that all
missionaries in isolated stations should gather together in one of the more central stations. So at the
age of just over two, with his nine month old sister and his parents, Percy was once again having to
escape for his life.
They joined with other travellers and went to Didao where the Christian & Missionary Alliance were
working and they stayed in the hospitable home of the Ekvalls until the trouble blew over. Just as well
they left Xining when they did for within two days of their departure a band of brigands, a thousand
strong, got to within two miles of the city determined to carry out their plans to kill the foreigners.
124
Amy Moore
THE THIRD GENERATION
PERCY AND AMY MOORE
PERCY’S STORY (15.10.1909 - 4.1.1972)
George Percival Moore was named George after his maternal grandfather, George Andrew and
Percival after his father’s younger brother. He was born on 15 October 1909 at Lanzhou in the
Province of Gansu in NW China where his parents were working as missionaries with the China Inland
Mission. Lanzhou was the capital of Gansu Province, a large city on the Yellow River. Percy’s
grandparents, George and Jessie Andrew was Field Superintendent in charge of the work and the
missionaries for all of Gansu, and the even more distant Xinjiang Province.
Percy’s birth was a difficult one for his mother. She was to have been cared for by the midwife for the
Province (Miss Mellor, I think), but his unexpectedly early arrival meant that the midwife had not
arrived. Esther, who was a midwife herself, with the help of medical books, had to instruct her father
how to deliver his grandson as he made his entry into the world. Esther, my mother-in-law, told me
the story herself. The afterbirth was not coming away and for the rest of that long October night, till
the doctor from the Lanzhou Christian Hospital could arrive, the old Chinese serving woman sat there
holding the end of the umbilical cord to prevent it slipping back! As Esther drifted in and out of
consciousness, she was vaguely aware of this immobile figure squatting by the side of the bed.
For the next year the Moore family remained in Lanzhou, but in January 1911, when Percy was a year
and three months old, they moved to Xining on the Tibetan border to relieve the Ridleys for furlough.
By February they were on their way back to Lanzhou for the birth of Jessie Mabel on 16 March 1911.
The family returned to Xining when Jessie was a month and a half old and Percy only eighteen
months. But three months later they were facing another upheaval when the lives of the whole family
were threatened by revolutionaries, members of Secret Societies who were determined to get rid of all
‘foreigners’. Around the city placards were pasted up urging people to kill them, and first on the list
were the names of Arthur and Esther Moore and their two children. In the mercy of God and through
the friendliness and strong stand taken by the local Government official, their lives were spared and
life in Xining returned to normal.
Not for long however. By the end of the year 1911, trouble was again brewing when a large band of
anti-foreign brigands decided to kill the foreigners and burn down the Mission home. It was the year
when there was unrest all over China, the year of the Republic. In Gansu it was decided that all
missionaries in isolated stations should gather together in one of the more central stations. So at the
age of just over two, with his nine month old sister and his parents, Percy was once again having to
escape for his life.
They joined with other travellers and went to Didao where the Christian & Missionary Alliance were
working and they stayed in the hospitable home of the Ekvalls until the trouble blew over. Just as well
they left Xining when they did for within two days of their departure a band of brigands, a thousand
strong, got to within two miles of the city determined to carry out their plans to kill the foreigners.
124
