Page 76 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 76
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
GEORGE FINDLAY ANDREW (14.7.1887 - 24.8.1971)
Findlay Andrew as he became known to most people, though he started off as "George", must be one
of the most remarkable men who ever went to China under the China Inland Mission. David Bentley-
Taylor's comment after reading through some of the records we have been able to obtain from Leslie
and others is, "I find Uncle George was a far greater man than I realised. It is a fantastic story of
adventure and achievement - really great."
He was the second of George Andrew's children, and through life he and his elder sister Esther were
always very close. Because I was Esther's daughter-in-law who lived and worked with her in the
same area of China (Shaanxi), I suppose I knew "Uncle George" as Percy always called him, better
than I knew the rest of the Andrew clan. That was partly because Esther often spoke of him or passed
on news of him, and partly because he was in China too, so our paths often crossed. To Percy he
was something of a hero, as indeed I think he was to all his nieces and nephews. This was partly due
to his genial and happy nature which was never too preoccupied to find time for the younger
generation, or to give them sweets or extra pocket money when he felt they needed something to buck
them up.
It was partly too perhaps because he was on the Chefoo staff at a time when some at least of his
sister's children, and some of his own were at school there. With parents far away in the north west
of China, it was wonderful to have the home of an uncle whom they knew and loved right there where
they could go whenever they were free. Then when holidays came, on the rare occasions when their
parents, Esther and Arthur Moore could get down to Chefoo, the two families had picnics and outings
together which were highlights often looked back on with nostalgia.
George Findlay Andrew was born in Guizhou Province in 1887. The following year, when the family
passed through Shanghai on their way to furlough in England, Hudson Taylor laid hands on the child
and prayed for him as he did for all the children of the Mission whom he met. They returned to
Yangzhou after furlough and George was at the Chefoo School from 1894 to 1900. He remembered
later in life that when he was about nine he had been called out of the classroom to hold the tape while
they measured out the site for the Boys" School by the sea.
As an old man living out his last years in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, his mind went back to his
early days at Chefoo.
"Last Sunday" he wrote, "I lived vividly through the sensations I had in the late spring
of 1894 when as a late arrival I made my first entrance into Chefoo school life. I had
to walk the seemingly endless length of the aisle in the main schoolroom of the Boys'
School (at the foot of the Top Bank) during the Childrens' Service to take my place
among the "under tens" (this was pre Prep School days) at the front of the Assembly.
I was rising seven and trying to recover from a homesick, seasick voyage from
Shanghai where I had embarked after a hurried trip from the interior city of
Yangzhou."
Dr. Robert Parry who later worked in the Bordern Memorial Hospital in Lanzhou, was at Chefoo as
one of GFA's contemporaries. He says,
"Owing to the great distance from our homes and the slow means of transport in those
days, we were among those who were unable to return home for even the long two
76
Amy Moore
GEORGE FINDLAY ANDREW (14.7.1887 - 24.8.1971)
Findlay Andrew as he became known to most people, though he started off as "George", must be one
of the most remarkable men who ever went to China under the China Inland Mission. David Bentley-
Taylor's comment after reading through some of the records we have been able to obtain from Leslie
and others is, "I find Uncle George was a far greater man than I realised. It is a fantastic story of
adventure and achievement - really great."
He was the second of George Andrew's children, and through life he and his elder sister Esther were
always very close. Because I was Esther's daughter-in-law who lived and worked with her in the
same area of China (Shaanxi), I suppose I knew "Uncle George" as Percy always called him, better
than I knew the rest of the Andrew clan. That was partly because Esther often spoke of him or passed
on news of him, and partly because he was in China too, so our paths often crossed. To Percy he
was something of a hero, as indeed I think he was to all his nieces and nephews. This was partly due
to his genial and happy nature which was never too preoccupied to find time for the younger
generation, or to give them sweets or extra pocket money when he felt they needed something to buck
them up.
It was partly too perhaps because he was on the Chefoo staff at a time when some at least of his
sister's children, and some of his own were at school there. With parents far away in the north west
of China, it was wonderful to have the home of an uncle whom they knew and loved right there where
they could go whenever they were free. Then when holidays came, on the rare occasions when their
parents, Esther and Arthur Moore could get down to Chefoo, the two families had picnics and outings
together which were highlights often looked back on with nostalgia.
George Findlay Andrew was born in Guizhou Province in 1887. The following year, when the family
passed through Shanghai on their way to furlough in England, Hudson Taylor laid hands on the child
and prayed for him as he did for all the children of the Mission whom he met. They returned to
Yangzhou after furlough and George was at the Chefoo School from 1894 to 1900. He remembered
later in life that when he was about nine he had been called out of the classroom to hold the tape while
they measured out the site for the Boys" School by the sea.
As an old man living out his last years in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, his mind went back to his
early days at Chefoo.
"Last Sunday" he wrote, "I lived vividly through the sensations I had in the late spring
of 1894 when as a late arrival I made my first entrance into Chefoo school life. I had
to walk the seemingly endless length of the aisle in the main schoolroom of the Boys'
School (at the foot of the Top Bank) during the Childrens' Service to take my place
among the "under tens" (this was pre Prep School days) at the front of the Assembly.
I was rising seven and trying to recover from a homesick, seasick voyage from
Shanghai where I had embarked after a hurried trip from the interior city of
Yangzhou."
Dr. Robert Parry who later worked in the Bordern Memorial Hospital in Lanzhou, was at Chefoo as
one of GFA's contemporaries. He says,
"Owing to the great distance from our homes and the slow means of transport in those
days, we were among those who were unable to return home for even the long two
76
