Papers of George William Clarke

The catalogue describes the collection as follows: « George William Clarke, China Inland Mission missionary to China, was born on May 30 1849 in Shoreditch, East London. One of five children he began working full-time in a factory when he was nine years old. In his teens he attended a night school run by Annie Macpherson, the promoter of child migration to Canada. When he was twenty-three he took charge of the first party of Macpherson boys being sent to Canada. In August 1875, Clarke responded to Hudson Taylor’s call for a group of eighteen men to join the China Inland Mission (CIM) with the aim of entering the nine unevangelised provinces of inland China. In 1879, in Shanghai, he married Fanny Rossier (also referred to as Marta), a Swiss missionary. [Clarke was widowed in 1883.] In 1886 he married Agnes Lancaster, who had gone to China in 1880 and had worked in T’ai-yuen in the province of Shansi. They had a son (John) but Agnes Clarke died in 1892 after giving birth to a daughter (also Agnes). Clarke died in Shantung province in 1919. His daughter, Agnes, was a CIM missionary for forty-six years and worked in east Szechwan before retiring to the CIM home for retired members in Kent. The collection includes: published material (a book and pamphlets), diaries, and cuttings related to the Clarke family: 8 items. »