Page 141 - GFA – A Different Drumbeat
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GFA – A Different Drumbeat 141
SOPHIE
I attended the Chefoo Boarding School from late 1940. Many students had gone home with
their parents as the War in Europe progressed and the Pacific War began to look inevitable.
The day after Pearl Harbour, those of us who were left were interned by the Japanese for
the rest of World War II. When Victory over Japan was proclaimed in August 1945, the
school was effectively wound up with students and teachers returning to their homes. A
year after the war, as the Chefoo property was no longer
available, the school was re-established in the China Inland
Mission headquarters in Shanghai. (The picture was taken in
1999 when we returned to Shanghai. I am standing outside the
Prayer Room. The school used a large percentage of the top
three floors during 1947.)
It was whilel I was at this reconstituted school in Shanghai that I
was invited to have a ‘sleep-over’ in GFA’s apartment. The
lovely lady, who at the time I assumed was his wife, was very
attentive to me. She asked me if I wanted to have a bath before I
went to bed. This was a special treat for me as for the duration
of the War a bath had been unknown to us. Having been instilled
with the ‘waste not, want not’ message all my life, I tentatively
asked how full I could fill the bath. “As full as you like” was her reply. I enjoyed a good long
soak in glorious luxury in an almost overflowing bath.
This lady was Sophie who had by this time taken a very special place in GFA’s life.
Thanks to Ruth Millar’s willingness to share some of GFA’s correspondence with me, we
are able to follow the development of their relationship from 1942 onwards.
By August 1942 Fanny’s mental health had deteriorated to the degree that it became
obvious that she needed full time psychiatric care. As India was still under British control in
1942, GFA took her to Ranchi in India where he had learnt there was an excellent teaching
hospital run by the British Government. He had hoped to be able to settle her in Delhi
where he was going to have to go regularly as part of his work with the British Government
in Chungking. He felt if he could do this, he would be able to see her more often and hoped
eventually to be able to send her to Canada.
Back in Chungking he wrote to Mervyn in Canada,
“My work will call for frequent visits to India (here he mentions his hope to see Fanny
there and eventually send her to Canada.) You would laugh to see the house in
which I am living in Chungking.It is just a mass of bombed ruins in which I have
managed to recondition three rooms and a small kitchen. Everything is most primitive
but I am lucky to have the place, as accommodation is so difficult to find here. My
SOPHIE
I attended the Chefoo Boarding School from late 1940. Many students had gone home with
their parents as the War in Europe progressed and the Pacific War began to look inevitable.
The day after Pearl Harbour, those of us who were left were interned by the Japanese for
the rest of World War II. When Victory over Japan was proclaimed in August 1945, the
school was effectively wound up with students and teachers returning to their homes. A
year after the war, as the Chefoo property was no longer
available, the school was re-established in the China Inland
Mission headquarters in Shanghai. (The picture was taken in
1999 when we returned to Shanghai. I am standing outside the
Prayer Room. The school used a large percentage of the top
three floors during 1947.)
It was whilel I was at this reconstituted school in Shanghai that I
was invited to have a ‘sleep-over’ in GFA’s apartment. The
lovely lady, who at the time I assumed was his wife, was very
attentive to me. She asked me if I wanted to have a bath before I
went to bed. This was a special treat for me as for the duration
of the War a bath had been unknown to us. Having been instilled
with the ‘waste not, want not’ message all my life, I tentatively
asked how full I could fill the bath. “As full as you like” was her reply. I enjoyed a good long
soak in glorious luxury in an almost overflowing bath.
This lady was Sophie who had by this time taken a very special place in GFA’s life.
Thanks to Ruth Millar’s willingness to share some of GFA’s correspondence with me, we
are able to follow the development of their relationship from 1942 onwards.
By August 1942 Fanny’s mental health had deteriorated to the degree that it became
obvious that she needed full time psychiatric care. As India was still under British control in
1942, GFA took her to Ranchi in India where he had learnt there was an excellent teaching
hospital run by the British Government. He had hoped to be able to settle her in Delhi
where he was going to have to go regularly as part of his work with the British Government
in Chungking. He felt if he could do this, he would be able to see her more often and hoped
eventually to be able to send her to Canada.
Back in Chungking he wrote to Mervyn in Canada,
“My work will call for frequent visits to India (here he mentions his hope to see Fanny
there and eventually send her to Canada.) You would laugh to see the house in
which I am living in Chungking.It is just a mass of bombed ruins in which I have
managed to recondition three rooms and a small kitchen. Everything is most primitive
but I am lucky to have the place, as accommodation is so difficult to find here. My
