Page 91 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 91
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
Chinese boys, and from May 1925 he spent four years on the staff of the Boys' School at Chefoo.
When I came to know him after 1932 I got the impression that in spite of many compensations from
living in Chefoo, those were not the years of his varied service which he enjoyed most. Possibly he
stayed on for Fanny's sake as life in the interior was getting too much for her, or it may have been for
the sake of his children.
By 1925 Leslie was 13, Aileen 11 and Mervyn 9. In July of that year GFA baptised Leslie and his
niece Jessie Moore and others in the sea. Jessie's father, Arthur Moore, wrote to her at that time,
"We have been so glad that Grandad (George Andrew Snr.) took
preparatory meetings and also spoke at the service on the shore. I'm
sure you would enjoy him and understand the meaning of baptism as
he is so clear. We were also glad to know that Uncle George
baptised you."
Maida Contento, who was on the Chefoo staff at the same time as George said,
"He was a very good teacher but it was a role which used up only a
fraction of his capacity as an innovator and adventurer."
While I was in Scotland in 1982 I met Dr. Bernard Walker who was at Chefoo when GFA was on the
staff there. His family lived next to them so he saw a lot of the Andrew children. He says GFA taught
geography. He was tall and good looking and always wore a leather coat which was much admired.
A link between the two families was that Robert Walker (Bernard's father), GFA, JOFraser and Arthur
Taylor, who was also on the Chefoo staff and later became CIM Secretary for Scotland, all sailed to
China together.
Bernard remembers GFA lecturing to the school on the Lamasery of Kumbum and on the earthquake
in Gansu. His memories of the children are more of Aileen and Mervyn than of Leslie who was older.
He told me Aileen was a very attractive girl and the boys all enjoyed looking at her but stood rather in
awe of her! Mervyn was nearer Bernard's age. He had a tremor in his hands so was teased by the
other boys, and the doctor told him not to drink tea, only water, because of it. This may have been
something to do with the brain tumour which later was the cause of his death.
FAMINE RELIEF IN GANSU - 1929
GFA's period of family life did not last very long. In 1929
"in response to an urgent appeal from the International Famine Relief
Commission of Peking, I was released from my teaching duties to
make a tour of investigation in Gansu where acute famine conditions
were reported."
He left Chefoo on 17 March 1929 and was gone four and a half months, caught up in a gigantic and
terrible drama, the memory of which haunted his dreams for months and even years afterwards, as he
once told us.
From the railhead in Henan he set out for the eleventh time on the 750 mile cart trip to Lanzhou.
Once in Gansu he found himself on "a veritable trail of death". The dead lay unburied on the roadside
and in the streets of the cities. Parents abandoned their dying children and stripped bark from the
91
Amy Moore
Chinese boys, and from May 1925 he spent four years on the staff of the Boys' School at Chefoo.
When I came to know him after 1932 I got the impression that in spite of many compensations from
living in Chefoo, those were not the years of his varied service which he enjoyed most. Possibly he
stayed on for Fanny's sake as life in the interior was getting too much for her, or it may have been for
the sake of his children.
By 1925 Leslie was 13, Aileen 11 and Mervyn 9. In July of that year GFA baptised Leslie and his
niece Jessie Moore and others in the sea. Jessie's father, Arthur Moore, wrote to her at that time,
"We have been so glad that Grandad (George Andrew Snr.) took
preparatory meetings and also spoke at the service on the shore. I'm
sure you would enjoy him and understand the meaning of baptism as
he is so clear. We were also glad to know that Uncle George
baptised you."
Maida Contento, who was on the Chefoo staff at the same time as George said,
"He was a very good teacher but it was a role which used up only a
fraction of his capacity as an innovator and adventurer."
While I was in Scotland in 1982 I met Dr. Bernard Walker who was at Chefoo when GFA was on the
staff there. His family lived next to them so he saw a lot of the Andrew children. He says GFA taught
geography. He was tall and good looking and always wore a leather coat which was much admired.
A link between the two families was that Robert Walker (Bernard's father), GFA, JOFraser and Arthur
Taylor, who was also on the Chefoo staff and later became CIM Secretary for Scotland, all sailed to
China together.
Bernard remembers GFA lecturing to the school on the Lamasery of Kumbum and on the earthquake
in Gansu. His memories of the children are more of Aileen and Mervyn than of Leslie who was older.
He told me Aileen was a very attractive girl and the boys all enjoyed looking at her but stood rather in
awe of her! Mervyn was nearer Bernard's age. He had a tremor in his hands so was teased by the
other boys, and the doctor told him not to drink tea, only water, because of it. This may have been
something to do with the brain tumour which later was the cause of his death.
FAMINE RELIEF IN GANSU - 1929
GFA's period of family life did not last very long. In 1929
"in response to an urgent appeal from the International Famine Relief
Commission of Peking, I was released from my teaching duties to
make a tour of investigation in Gansu where acute famine conditions
were reported."
He left Chefoo on 17 March 1929 and was gone four and a half months, caught up in a gigantic and
terrible drama, the memory of which haunted his dreams for months and even years afterwards, as he
once told us.
From the railhead in Henan he set out for the eleventh time on the 750 mile cart trip to Lanzhou.
Once in Gansu he found himself on "a veritable trail of death". The dead lay unburied on the roadside
and in the streets of the cities. Parents abandoned their dying children and stripped bark from the
91
