the services - university of toronto
TRANSCRIPT
The Services
Dr. Charles Winfield Service and Mrs. Robina (Morgan) Service were
medical missionaries of the West China Mission located in Sichuan Province
from 1902 to 1930. They served with both the Methodist Church of Canada
and after church union in 1925, The United Church of Canada. Charlie was a
surgeon and an ordained minister graduating from Victoria College in 1895
and Trinity Medical College of the University of Toronto in 1899. Robina
received her nursing degree in 1899 from Brockville General Hospital.
Author: Elizabeth Service (M.A., International Affairs) August 2019
Researcher: Francie Service (B.A., B.Ed.) Ottawa, Ontario
Editor: John Service (Ph.D., Psychology)
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Background of Medical Missions
Charlie and Robina Service were motivated by the belief that “the promotion of health promises
to be the leading ideal of the twentieth century”.1 Their life story, as medical missionaries in
China, began in 1902 in a mission station in Wuhu, a commercial river port on the Yangtze
River.2 This one-year posting focused on language training and the mission was administered by
Dr. Edgerton Hart, the son of the first superintendent of the Canadian Methodist Mission
(CMM). Superintendent Virgil Hart had established numerous mission stations in central China,
for the Methodist Episcopal Church USA, and his experience building a hospital and a
university-based medical school in Nanjing provided a template for the CMM.3
Charlie learned about the work of the Hart family, as a young child growing up in Athens,
Ontario. His father Rev. William Service was appointed to the Athens Methodist Episcopal
Church from 1877-1880, and Charlie would later return to Athens for his high school education.4
Athens, located in eastern Ontario, was the childhood home of Miss Adeline Gilliland who
married Dr. Virgil Hart in 1865, and it was Mrs. Hart who convinced her husband to defer his
retirement plans and to accept the role of superintendent of the CMM.5
The influence of this small town was far-reaching, and it is remarkable that two women, from the
local Methodist church, played such effectual roles in the diffusion of medical knowledge.
Adeline Hart was the first Canadian woman to live in China, and her son would later reflect that
“many of the institutions which he [his father] was instrumental in establishing, such as the
famous hospital and college in Nanking, owe their first inspiration to her”.6 Another Athens
resident Dr. Leonora Howard King founded a hospital in Tianjin and the first medical school for
women in all of China.7 In recognition of her treatment of Chinese soldiers during the 1894 war
against Japan, she was awarded the Imperial Order of the Double Dragon, which was the first
time a western woman was given such a prestigious honour.8 These local missionary
connections had a profound impact on Charlie, and when he “was a young boy, he formed the
1 Charles W. Service, “Public Health in China”, The Canadian Journal of Medicine and Surgery, Vol. 46, No. 5, (1919), 370. 2 C.W. Service, “Departmental Surveys - Medical Work”, in Our West China Mission, ed. F.C. Stephenson, (Toronto: The Missionary Society of the Methodist Church and The Young People’s Forward Movement, 1920), 378. 3 Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society, Seventieth Annual Report of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. For the Year 1888, (New York: Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society, 1888), 88. 4 “Ministers”, Athens (Farmersville) Episcopal Methodist Church-Yonge Township, Leeds County, Ontario, https://krassoc.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/athens-methodist-episcopal-church/. It should be noted that Athens was originally called Farmersville until 1888. 5 Neil Semple, The Lord’s Domain: The History of Canadian Methodism, (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1996), 323-326. 6 E.I. Hart, D.D., Virgil C. Hart: Missionary Statesman, Founder of the American and Canadian Missions in Central and West China, (Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart, 1917), 25. It should be noted that the spelling of Chinese cities varies due to English transliteration and Nanjing is called Nanking. 7 The conventional form of Tianjin is Tientsin. 8 Semple, The Lord’s Domain, 323; Margaret Negodaeff, “Howard, Leonora Annetta (King)”, in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. XV (1921-1930), University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003, http://www.biographi.ca/ en/bio/howard_leonora_annetta_15E.html.
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decision to come to China”.9 His connection with eastern Ontario would remain throughout his
life and just as they were “proud to claim Dr. Service, as a Leeds County boy”, he was honoured
that the young people of the Brockville District Epworth League sponsored him and annually
raised funds to support his career in China.10
Figure 1: Dr. and Mrs. Hart
(Source: Virgil Chittenden Hart, Canadian School in West China)
Charlie was also exposed to the missiological approach of Dr. and Mrs. Hart through his
university affiliations. While he was attending medical school in January 1897, Victoria College
organized a farewell dinner for Superintendent Hart, and Charlie, as the secretary of the Student
Volunteer Movement, presented him with a memento for his return trip to China.11 It would be
only five years later that Charlie, now a medical missionary, would observe first-hand the
missiological potential of the Hart philosophy, where education and medicine were used as
catalysts, to improve social conditions and to accelerate the acceptance of missions.12 In 1903,
Charlie wrote a letter, to the General Board of Missions of the Methodist Church of Canada, to
reinforce the importance of education and medicine to the overall missionary enterprise: “What
China needs” stated Charlie was “educational institutions, hospitals, Bible societies, societies for
the preparation and diffusion of books of knowledge of every kind”.13 Charlie never wavered
from his missiological support for the diffusion of knowledge, and as his colleague Dr. George
Sparling observed, “from the time that he first came out he constantly urged that there should be
a University opened and that in the University there should be a College of Medicine”.14 In
subsequent years, Charlie would join many others to implement this collective vision of the West
China Mission, and he would nurture a university “as a missionary statesman furthering medical
education”.15
9 Rev. George Sparling, Address given at “A Friend and Fellow Missionary Laid to Rest”, Funeral Service for Dr. Charles Winfield Service, March 13, 1930, Si Shen Si Church, Chengdu, West China. 10 “Rev. Charles Winfield Service, M.D., C.M.”, Order of Service Wall Street United Church, March 30, 1930; “Names and Post Office Addresses of Missionaries and their Assignment for Support, May, 1920”, Our West China Mission, 468. 11 The Globe, “Forward Movement: A Great Methodist Missionary Awakening”, January 18, 1897, 4. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail. 12 E.I. Hart, D.D., Virgil C. Hart: Missionary Statesman, 93; Alvyn J. Austin, Saving China: Canadian Missionaries in the Middle Kingdom 1888-1959, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1986), 51, 55, 66. 13 C.W. Service in Kenneth J. Beaton, Great Living; Rev. Charles W. Service, B.A., M.D., C.M. of Chengtu, West China, (n.l.: The Centenary Committee of the Canadian Churches, n.d.), 18. 14 Sparling, Address for Dr. Charles Winfield Service. 15 Board of Foreign Missions, United Church of Canada, “Minutes, Rev. C. W. Service, B.A., M.D.”, (April 1930).
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Life in Leshan
Upon completing their language studies, Charlie and Robina continued their journey up the
Yangtze River to their final destination in Leshan, located close to Mount Omei. One of their
first tasks was to repair the hospital, and they insisted that it be an aseptic environment which
was medical protocol since the turn of the century.16 This task was a typical assignment for
medical missionaries, and over the years, Charlie would often lament that “valuable time and
skill” was lost on the building and repairing of medical structures, in preparation for their “real
work of ministering to the sick”.17 Dr. R.B. Ewan, a pioneer doctor based in Chengdu, would
argue that if a missionary doctor was to render professional medical assistance, “he must no
longer be expected to be a mason, a carpenter, and blacksmith; he must not have to be head cook
and chief laundryman, as well as a specialist in every department of his profession”.18
Figure 2: The 1902 group of missionaries. Back row left to right: Dr. Service, Dr. Adams,
Mrs. Bates, Rev. Bates; Front row: Mrs. Service, Rev. Stewart, Mrs. Adams
(Source: Vic in China Exhibition. Used by permission Victoria University Library (Toronto). Victoria College and
the Student Volunteer Movement, “The Call to Students to the Foreign Field”, Acta Victoriana, 26:4, 278)
The CMM expected their employees to be flexible, and to accept any position, in order to fulfill
the mandate of the mission. For medical personnel, this meant being a “versatile medical
missionary”, and they were sometimes assigned to non-medical tasks by the Home Board in
Canada.19 This was the case in Leshan, and Dr. W.F. Adams, a trained doctor and dentist, was
assigned to church work and Charlie was appointed to medical work. For a few months in 1906,
Charlie managed both medical and church activities until another employee arrived, and this
enabled Charlie to return to his full-time medical practice.20 In the case of Robina, she was not
officially appointed to work as a nurse, as church policy prevented married women from being
16 George Bond, Our Share in China and What We are Doing with It, 2nd ed., (Toronto: The Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, 1911), 107; Atul Gawande, “Slow Ideas”, The New Yorker, 29 July 2013, https://www. newyorker.com/magazine/2013/07/29/slow-ideas. 17 C.W. Service, Our West China Mission, 384-385. 18 Dr. R.B. Ewan, “General Review of Medical Work”, in West China Missionary Conference, ed. A. Grainger, (Chentu: Canadian Methodist Mission Press, 1908), 237. 19 C.W. Service, Our West China Mission, 382. 20 Ibid., 383-384.
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officially assigned to a specific salaried position.21 Even though these non-salaried workers were
undervalued by the missionary enterprise, a number of sources indicate that Robina played a
significant nursing role throughout her time in China, in spite of this patriarchal policy.
Once the buildings were repaired, the opening of the hospital was further delayed after Charlie
contacted typhus, from a woman he discovered lying on the road. Charlie’s immediate response
was to treat this destitute woman, and his reaction reflected the Methodist commitment to tackle
the “age-long problem of human suffering” through the provision of health care.22 Dispensaries
were built to treat “the poorer class who cannot afford hospital care”, and in those situations
when patients required additional treatment but were unable to cover the costs of hospitalization,
Charlie would later initiate the “Good Samaritan Fund”.23 The CMM believed in a social gospel
doctrine that supported the overall wellbeing of the individual, and one of the practical means “to
bring heaven down to this earth”, and to promote social justice, was to provide medical care to
all members of society regardless of their social status or religious beliefs.24 These humanitarian
values placed the Methodist Church in the forefront of societal reform in Canada, and it had a
strong missiological influence on the doctors and nurses working in China.
Figure 3: Mission buildings in Leshan
(Source: Our West China Mission, 97)
One of their greatest challenges was to gain the trust of the local community. Each mission
station had its own political and sociocultural context, and Leshan was located in one of the most
conservative regions of Sichuan.25 “As surgery has practically been unknown to the Chinese,
and is, perhaps, above all else” Charlie would postulate “the most tangible to them and the most
satisfactory to us of all lines of professional work”, it was imperative that surgery be performed
21 Sonya Grypma, Healing Henan: Canadian Nurses at the North China Mission, 1888-1947, (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008), 10. 22 “Charles Winfield Service”, Through Faith, (Toronto: The United Church Publishing House, 1930), 11, http:// library.vicu.utoronto.ca/exhibitions/vic_in_china/sections/missionaries_and_mission_stations/attachments/ through_faith_easter_1930.pdf. 23 C.W. Service, “Letter to Family, February 23, 1930”, The West China Missionary News, June 1931, 12, https://divdl.library.yale.edu/divinitycontent/dayrep/9866641_1931_033-006_eng.pdfB; Beaton, Great Living, 23. 24 S.D. Chown, in Ramsay Cook, The Regenerators: Social Criticism in Late Victorian English Canada, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985), 230; Neil Semple, The Lord’s Domain, 307. 25 A.P. Quentin, “Kiating”, Our West China Mission, 192. The conventional form of Leshan is Kiating.
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at the community hospital.26 In order to accomplish this in the pioneer days, Dr. Stewart Allen
noted that “all sorts of ways had to be thought out to entice someone to submit…to surgical
treatment”.27 Charlie and Robina determined that a visual demonstration, of a successfully
performed large operation, would secure a “reputation for professional skill and service” and
accelerate the building of good will between themselves and their neighbours.28 After taking all
the necessary precautions to ensure the aseptic conditions for the abdominal surgery were not
compromised, they invited the local community to observe through the veranda window, the
surgeon Charlie and the nurse Robina, removing a kidney stone.29 This evidence-based
operation lent itself to building trust, as the kidney stone was physically examined by the
observers, and once the patient recovered, news of the successful operation spread and new
patients began to seek medical treatment. The local tea shop was an important public space for
the exchange and acceptance of new ideas as “diffusion is essentially a social process through
which people talking to people spread an innovation”.30
The small community hospital accommodated 30 patients and consisted of three separate
buildings: a women’s ward with 15 beds, a men’s ward also with 15 beds and a third building
with operating, waiting, drug, and dispensary rooms.31 The hospital wards were occupied most
of the time, and Charlie and Robina were busy treating a large patient load in the dispensary.32
Robina’s role in treating female patients was critical, as a female nurse had immediate access to
female patients, whereas a male foreign doctor faced cultural restrictions. In 1906, Dr. Cassidy
Mortimore arrived in Leshan, to join her husband Rev. W.J. Mortimore, and she was also
instrumental in the treatment of female patients.33
Aside from medical and church work, Leshan was also the initial location of the Canadian
Mission Press before moving in 1905, to its permanent location in Chengdu. The printing press
was introduced by Superintendent Virgil Hart and it quickly became a self-supporting business.34
It continued to thrive under the guidance of Rev. James Endicott until he was reassigned to
Canada, to oversee the overall missionary enterprise for the Methodist Church of Canada.35
Charlie took a keen interest in the Canadian Mission Press, and as a member of the operations
committee, he advocated for the printing of public health pamphlets.
The Services would remain in Leshan until their furlough in 1909. This was a special family
reunion in Canada, as their three daughters had been born in China during this period: Winnifred
(Wuhu: 1903), Margaret (Leshan: 1904), and Frances (Leshan: 1906). During this furlough,
Charlie would further his medical training, in the United States, through postgraduate studies at
26 C. W. Service, “Self Support”, in West China Missionary Conference, 252. 27 Dr. A. Stewart Allen, “Modern Medicine in China: Its Development and Its Difficulties”, Canadian Medical Association Journal, Vol. 56, No. 2, (1947), 211. 28 C. W. Service, “Self Support”, in West China Missionary Conference, 247. 29 Beaton, Great Living, 14-15; Austin, Saving China, 173. 30 Everett Rogers in Atul Gawande, “Slow Ideas”, The New Yorker. 31 Bond, Our Share in China, 107. 32 Omar Kilborn, Heal the Sick: An Appeal for Medical Missions in China, (Toronto: The Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, 1910), 242-243. 33 C.W. Service, Our West China Mission, 384. 34 G. McIntosh, “Mission Presses”, The China Mission Yearbook, (Shanghai: Christian Literature for China, 1910), 356. 35 S.P. Westaway, “The Mission Press”, Our West China Mission, 412-416; Semple, The Lord’s Domain, 329.
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Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.36 Charlie and many of his colleagues were committed to
lifelong learning, and Johns Hopkins University was a catalytic centre, for institutionalizing
large-scale social change, in clinical health care methods and medical education worldwide.
In 1910, Charlie was reassigned to the mission hospital in Leshan, and he held this position until
the 1911 Rebellion which overthrew the Qing Dynasty and established the Republic of China.
During this period, the missionaries were evacuated to Shanghai, and the medical work in
Leshan and all other stations, except Chongqing, was shut down. The doctors would argue that
“the Revolution revealed the weakness of our work” because there were no Chinese doctors to
manage the hospitals during their absence.37 It was the position of the Canadians, and their
American and British colleagues, that the “missionary doctor is not here merely to cure
individuals but rather to cure conditions, and to do this on a large scale”, there needed to be a
greater emphasis on initiating medical education at a university-level institution.38 Currently, the
health care assistants were being individually trained, and this proved to be “altogether
inadequate and unsatisfactory” for the delivery of effective health care.39 The introduction of
quality medical education, to train indigenous doctors and medical educators who in turn would
train additional doctors, would be the foundation for building a sustainable health care system in
Sichuan. According to his colleague Dr. Sparling, “several times I have heard him [Charlie] say
that if our work was to be successful it must not depend on the foreigner. Unless we can get
Chinese educators educated then our work as foreigners will be a failure”.40
Origins of the Medical Work in Chengdu
Chengdu was the first mission station opened by the Methodist Church of Canada.41 Prior to the
arrival of the Canadians, medical work had been introduced by missionary groups in Chongqing
about 1885 and in 1891, both the Methodist Episcopal Church USA and the Methodist Church of
Canada, appointed medical personnel to work in Chengdu.42 Superintendent Virgil Hart and
Rev. George Hartwell arrived in 1891 to oversee church activities, and Drs. Omar Kilborn and
David Stevenson were assigned to medical duties. “Thus, from the beginning of our work”,
Charlie later remarked, “our Missionary Society and our Church recognized the place and the
value of the medical arm of missionary service”.43 It is interesting to note the connection of
Athens, Ontario to this pioneer group. As mentioned earlier, Mrs. Hart was born in Athens, and
both Rev. Hartwell and Dr. Kilborn grew up in eastern Ontario and attended high school in this
small Ontario town.44
The CMM opened their first medical dispensary in Chengdu in November 1892 and this was
considered to be the beginning of “our medical policy in West China…Drs. Kilborn and
36 Beaton, Great Living, 17. 37 C.W. Service, Our West China Mission, 387-388. 38 Ibid., 395-396. 39 Ibid., 394-395. 40 Sparling, Address for Dr. Charles Winfield Service. 41 The conventional form of Chengdu is Chengtu. 42 Dr. R.B. Ewan, “General Review of Medical Work”, in West China Missionary Conference, 235; “List of Registered Delegates”, in West China Missionary Conference, 382-386. 43 C.W. Service, Our West China Mission, 378. 44 Omar Kilborn, “High School and College Days in Canada”, in The Life of Rev. William James Hall, M.D., ed. Rosetta Sherwood Hall, M.D., (New York: Press of Eaton and Mains, 1897), 37, 44-45.
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Stevenson were the pioneers”.45 The next immediate need was to build a small hospital. In Our
West China Mission, the book chronicling the history of the first 25 years of the CMM, it was
noted that “early in 1894 the erection of the first foreign hospital in Chengtu was begun, on the
street and site now occupied by our present large medical plant. This was the small beginning of
a steadily growing medical work”.46 George Bond, who was tasked by the Methodist Church of
Canada to record the early history of the CMM, spent six months in Sichuan researching his
book, and it was his understanding that “the first hospital buildings were erected by Dr.
Stevenson…in 1894”.47 He was an eye, ear, nose and throat specialist, and “Dr. Stevenson
reported a successful year” recalled Hartwell and “he had worked up a large practice”.48 While
Stevenson was constructing the hospital, Kilborn travelled to Shanghai to escort the second
group of missionaries to Chengdu, and he and his wife Dr. Retta Kilborn were then posted to
Leshan for one year.49 Although Stevenson retired from service, after the 1895 riots in Chengdu,
his leadership in opening the first dispensary and building the first hospital would be a lasting
legacy of his pioneering contributions. Dr. W.E. Smith was appointed to replace Dr. Stevenson
in 1896, and there was now a small group of medical missionaries working as a collective, and
they were joined in 1897 by Dr. R.B. Ewan.50
In an historical overview of the medical services, it was noted that “a glance at the mission
records of the early days of the century reveals that on several occasions doctors were placed in
charge of churches because of the relative dearth of pastoral men”.51 These employees were
known as the “versatile medical missionary” and Kilborn and Smith were often appointed to
non-medical positions.52 In 1901, following the Boxer Rebellion, Kilborn recorded the
operational decision for “Dr. Ewan to reopen the medical work in Chengtu and myself to reopen
the church work in Chengtu” while Smith was appointed to both medical and church activities in
Leshan.53 Kilborn temporarily covered Ewan’s medical responsibilities, during his furlough, and
after Ewan returned in 1906, “the Council of that year appointed him to the Chengtu hospital, to
begin the erection of the large new building”.54 Construction began in the spring of 1907, and
documents reveal the ongoing institutional need for doctors to accept non-medical positions.
The Versatile Medical Missionary: In 1907 there were six medical missionaries, but two
of those had to be placed in charge of evangelistic work because of [a] shortage of
pastoral workers. These two were, Dr. Kilborn in Chengtu, and Dr. Smith in Junghsien.55
45 C. W. Service, “Letter from Rev. C.W. Service, B.A., M.D., Chengtu, West China, February 27, 1917”, The Missionary Bulletin, Vol. 13, No. 3, (1917), 412, The United Church of Canada Archives, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Bond, Our Share in China, 61-62. 46 C.W. Service, Our West China Mission, 378. 47 Bond, Our Share in China, 56. 48 George E. Hartwell, B.A., B.D., D.D., Granary of Heaven, (Toronto: The United Church of Canada, Wesley Buildings, 1939), 42- 43. 49 Ibid., 43; Bond, Our Share in China, 99, 106; Kilborn, Heal the Sick, 233. 50 C.W. Service, Our West China Mission, 380, 473-474. 51 Leslie Kilborn, “The Medical Services of the Canadian Mission in Szechwan”, The West China Missionary News, (October 1937), 9, https://divdl.library.yale.edu/divinitycontent/dayrep/9866641_1937_039-010_eng.pdf. 52 C.W. Service, Our West China Mission, 382. 53 Kilborn, Heal the Sick, 241; C.W. Service, Our West China Mission, 380. 54 Kilborn, Heal the Sick, 246. 55 C.W. Service, Our West China, 382.
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The missionary who “escaped the peril of a specialist”, and served in other capacities outside of
their specific area of training, was an important asset to the CMM.56 A versatile skill set
provided the necessary flexibility to assign personnel where needed, in order to fulfill the
mandate of the Methodist Church of Canada. Charlie would contend that Kilborn’s career
exemplified this operating principle.
Due to his versatility, adaptability and willingness, he was frequently side tracked from
the work for which he originally went to China. For many years the secretary-
treasurership engaged the bulk of his time and energies...the Red Cross and the Y.M.C.A.
found him ever ready to help…[and] he enthusiastically devoted himself to the new
missionaries, especially using his great talent as a teacher of the language.57
The willingness to adapt to new situations was also an important missiological strategy for
individual missions, and in 1910, the American Methodist Episcopal Hospital was operated by
the CMM.58 A staffing shortage meant that their new hospital would “have been closed had the
Canadian Methodist Mission not appointed one of their number, Dr. W.J. Sheridan, to carry on
the work” which the Americans later reported had “been admirably done”.59 This collaborative
approach was welcomed by the CMM, as it “demonstrated that co-operative medical work is
practicable as well as economical”.60
Canadian Methodist Hospital (1907-1911)
The building of the new hospital in Chengdu was an ambitious project and according to church
historian George Bond, it was an integral component of the overall medical vision.
In 1907 the foundations for a splendid new modern hospital were laid, under the
superintendence of Dr. Ewan, and the work of its erection has so far progressed that it
will soon be ready for occupancy. It is a substantial and handsome brick building of
three stories, built from plans suggested by Dr. Ewan. It is intended when finished to be
as thoroughly modern, commodious, sanitary, and scientific in its equipment as possible,
and will undoubtedly be the largest and finest hospital as yet erected in all West China.61
56 Endicott, “Memorial Service for Dr. C.W. Service”, (Trinity United Church, Toronto: 23 March 1930). 57 C.W. Service, Funeral Address: “A Service of Tribute to the Late Omar Leslie Kilborn, M.D., D.D.”, The Missionary Outlook, Vol. XL, No. 7, 1920, 150, The United Church of Canada Archives, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Rev. James Neave, “Unoccupied Fields”, Our West China Mission, 129; Bond, Our Share in China, 260; The Globe, “Year at Home Ends in Death of Missionary: Rev. O.L. Kilborn Dies During Furlough From China”, May 19, 1920, 8. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail. 58 C.W. Freeman, “Report of Chengtu Hospital”, Minutes of the Fourth Annual Session of the West China Mission
Council of the Methodist Episcopal Church: Chungking January 11-15, 1911, (Shanghai: Methodist Publishing House, 1911), 46. 59 Ibid., 46-47; H. L. Canright, “Report of Chengtu Medical Work”, Minutes of the Third Annual Session of the West China Mission Council of the Methodist Episcopal Church: Chengtu January 19-24, 1910, (Shanghai: Methodist Publishing House, 1910), 47. 60 C.W. Service, Our West China Mission, 384. 61 Bond, Our Share in China, 63.
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Figure 4: Dr. R.B. Ewan, Superintendent, Canadian Methodist Hospital
(Source: Our West China Mission, 174)
Ewan would hold the position of superintendent until he returned to Canada in 1912. He needed
to recuperate from the physical strain of overseeing the construction of the hospital which would
“long stand as a monument of the initiative, faith, perseverance, and patience of the man who
almost literally built himself into this great structure”.62 His significant contribution to health
care was widely recognized by his colleagues and in Our West China Mission, Reverend N.E.
Bowles directly credits Ewan’s “efforts while on furlough to secure a modern hospital for West
China” and the fact “he superintended personally the plans, building and equipment…To the
faith and hard work of Dr. R.B. Ewan is due in large part the securing of such a splendid
building”.63 In The Missionary Bulletin, a magazine published by the youth wing of the
Methodist Church of Canada, letters were shared to provide insight into mission work, and in
1913 Charlie noted that64
Before I close this letter I must mention Dr. R. B. Ewan as the originator and promoter of
this great Chengtu hospital enterprise. It is a great task for anyone, particularly for one
who is not a professional builder. But this beautiful hospital is pre-eminently a witness to
the zeal, the faith, the persistence and the industry of the doctor. Before his return to
Canada he brought it nearly to completion.65
Canadian Methodist Hospital (1912-1918)
In the spring of 1912, Charlie was appointed by the Mission Council to oversee the Canadian
Methodist Hospital. This would include supervising the final stage of construction along with
Mr. Walter Small, the “efficient Mission Builder”, who was responsible for the coordination of
all construction projects.66 As James Endicott, general secretary of The United Church of
Canada would later note, Charlie “was known to be, perhaps, the outstanding surgeon in our
62 C.W. Service, Our West China Mission, 389; “Rev. R.B. Ewan, M.D., D.D.”, The West China Missionary News, (February 1927), 33, https://divdl.library.yale.edu/divinitycontent/dayrep/9866641_1927_029-002_eng.pdf. 63 N.E. Bowles, “Station Surveys - Chengtu”, Our West China Mission, 174. 64 George Emery, Methodist Church on the Prairies, 1896-1914, (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2001), 63. 65 C.W. Service, “Letter from Rev. C.W. Service M.D., China, July 19, 1913”, The Missionary Bulletin, Vol. 10, No. 1, (1913-1914), 126, The United Church of Canada Archives, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 66 Ibid; C.W. Service, Our West China Mission, 388.
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mission in West China, and he had not been in China long before he was placed in our most
important hospital - a place not only where the sick were healed but where students secured their
clinical training. It is a great and important centre, and in all the developments of our hospital
work Dr. Service had a most prominent and vital position”.67
Figure 5: Canadian Methodist Hospital, Chengdu: final stage of construction
(Source: Service Family)
The hospital was officially opened on January 30, 1913, and the CMM was very appreciative
that “members of the Szechwan Red Cross Society joined us in acting as hosts, as that Society
has done us the honour of choosing ours as the Red Cross Society Hospital”.68 The initial
medical staff, appointed by the CMM, consisted of three health care workers: the doctor Charlie
appointed as superintendent of all hospital operations, the nurse Barbara McNaughton designated
as lady superintendent in charge of nursing and the training school for nurses, and the pharmacist
Edwin Meuser assigned as supervisor of the pharmaceutical department.69 The CCM was able to
successfully expand its enterprise through the collaborative efforts of its mission workers, and as
Charlie noted, “Miss McNaughton, Mr. Meuser and Mr. Small have given valuable assistance”.70
In 1914, funds were allocated for a second doctor and Dr. C.B. Kelly joined the staff, and in
1916, he would lecture part-time at the Medical College of West China Union University.71
This well-equipped modern hospital of 125 beds could accommodate a growing patient load, and
Charlie would continue to oversee the medical work, until his furlough in 1918. One of his
colleagues, Rev. N.E. Bowles, provided some insight into Charlie’s daily hospital routine when
he wrote that “Dr. Service performed six operations that morning. During these operations no
less than four letters had come in, all marked urgent. He had four dysentery cases to attend…
67 Dr. James Endicott, Memorial Service for Dr. C.W. Service. 68 C. W. Service, “Letter from Rev. C.W. Service M.D., China, July 19, 1913”, The Missionary Bulletin, 126. 69 Beaton, Great Living, 17; C.W. Service, Our West China Mission, 389. 70 C.W. Service, “Letter from Rev. C.W. Service M.D., China, July 19, 1913”, The Missionary Bulletin, 123. 71 C.W. Service, Our West China Mission, 389; C.R. Carscallen, “West China Union University”, Our West China Mission, 368.
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this, besides the regular in-patients, the dispensary, and the one hundred and one things that only
a doctor can look after around a hospital”.72 The hospital wards were consistently full, and in
terms of the dispensary, Drs. Kelly and Service and Miss McNaughton would treat 175-200
patients three days a week.73 This hospital would eventually be replaced and today Chengdu
Hospital Number 2 sits on this former mission site.
Figure 6: Canadian and Chinese staff of the Canadian Methodist Hospital. 1. Barbara McNaughton
(nurse), 2. Charles Service (doctor), 3. Walter Small (builder), 4. Edwin Meuser (pharmacist)
(Source: Service Family)74
West China Union University – The Early Years
During this period, Charlie was also actively involved in medical education, and he was one of
the “builders who laid the foundation of West China Union University”.75 Founded in 1910,
West China Union University (WCUU) was a synergistic endeavour of different denominations
and mission communities from Canada, the United States and Great Britain. Four missions
founded WCUU, and these were the General Board of Missions of the Methodist Church of
Canada, the Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church USA, the American
Baptist Foreign Mission Society, and the Friends’ Foreign Mission Association of Great Britain
and Ireland. The Church Missionary Society of England joined WCUU in 1918.76
The missions individually mobilized financial and human resources, and collectively established
a joint governance structure, consisting of both a Senate based in Chengdu and an international
72 N.E. Bowles, “Station Surveys - Chengtu”, Our West China Mission, 174-175. 73 Beaton, Great Living, 17. 74 Please note that in some of the photographs Chinese colleagues and students are not identified. Hopefully, this information is available in the archives of the participating institutions in China and can be included at a later date. 75 H.E. Warren, “Dr. Charles W. Service: A Brief Sketch of his Academic Days”, 2. 76 Yale Divinity Library, “The American Context of China’s Christian http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/ ChinaCollegesProject/descriptions.htm#westchina.
1 2
3
4
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Board of Governors, to approve all operational decisions and academic policies. WCUU
purchased 120 acres of land and built colleges “to provide courses in Arts, Science, Medicine,
Law, Engineering and Agriculture, to become a University in the fullest sense, to make it
unnecessary for any student of the Western provinces to go abroad for any course needed to fit
him for any phase of life in China”.77 From the beginning, it was determined that all subjects
would be “taught exclusively in Chinese…as it tends less to denationalize the student than the
method of giving him his education through the medium of a foreign language”.78 It was the
definite hope of the founders that the university would ultimately become in “every sense a
Chinese institution at such time as it shall be possible to leave it in the hands of Chinese”.79
Figure 7: Fred Rowntree & Sons architectural drawing of West China Union University
(Source: Poster Celebrating the Work of Fred Rowntree in Chengtu)
The founding president of WCUU was Dr. J. Beech, of the Board of Foreign Missions of the
Methodist Episcopal Church USA, and the first vice-president was Rev. E.J. Carson, followed by
Rev. J.L. Stewart. Both men were representatives of the General Board of Missions of the
Methodist Church of Canada.80 The CMM was an active voice in the promotion of medical
education and it was the opinion of Dr. Kenneth Beaton, secretary of the Committee on
Missionary Education for The United Church of Canada, that “in the year 1910, the West China
Union University came into being through the vision of several pioneer missionaries, of whom
77 C.R. Carscallen, “West China Union University”, Our West China Mission, 362-363. 78 E.J. Carson, “Mission Schools, Colleges, and Universities for Men and Boys: West China”, The China Mission Yearbook, (Shanghai: Christian Literature Society for China, 1910), 93. 79 Ibid., 95. 80 C.R. Carscallen, “West China Union University”, Our West China Mission, 368.
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Dr. O.L. Kilborn and Dr. C.W. Service were prominent members. From the very opening both
of them anticipated that Medicine would be taught”.81
One of the operating principles adopted by the CMM was the commitment to foster collaboration
with the other missions in order to maximize impact. This commitment extended to medical
education, as it was “evident to the small number of medical missionaries that came to West
China that the only possible way of caring adequately for the diseased was by the establishing of
a Chinese medical profession on a scientific medicine basis”, and the various missions worked
together to develop the curriculum based on this collective understanding.82 At the West China
Missionary Conference in 1908, a resolution was passed stating the “importance of founding a
Medical School in connection with the proposed Union University”, and it was agreed “that Drs.
Wolfendale and Cox be a Committee to prepare a Course of Study for Medical Colleges, and
report to the Acting Board of Education of the Union University”.83 Cox was a member of the
CMM and Wolfendale was with the London Missionary Society, until he joined the CMM in
1910, after the West China Mission was granted operational control of their Chongqing
operations.
In these early days, no individual was given the direct credit for introducing the idea of medical
education and conceptualizing its implementation. In large-scale collaborations with many
different actors, it is very difficult to assign direct credit to one individual because numerous
tasks are being implemented simultaneously within the individual missions and between the
multiple missions.84 This concept of a collective responsibility was reinforced by Charlie, in his
official report on the history of medical work, in Our West China Mission.
For many years the idea of a medical college for West China had been in the minds of our
doctors, but it was only in 1914 that these ideas fructified. Our mission is now one of
several which are united in this young enterprise of training.85
The participating missions shared a missiological vision, and collectively they built the necessary
foundation of cohesion and trust, to nurture this young social enterprise into an established
institution of medical training. Inter-mission co-operation was an extension of the decision taken
at the Edinburgh World Mission Conference of 1910 which encouraged Protestant churches,
with a commonality in liberal theology, to engage in collective social action. Specifically, The
Declaration of Principles adopted by the participants affirmed that
We believe that the age of sheer individualism has passed and the age of social
responsibility has arrived. All institutions of the higher education should directly prepare
young men and women for membership in the social order – in the family, the church, the
state, and the community. To this end all teachers should be persons deeply imbued with
81 Beaton, Great Living, 19. 82 West China Union University, “Medical Education in the West China Union University”, WCUU Radio Broadcast April 13, 1943, 5, http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-280-4412.pdf. 83 A. Grainger, ed., West China Missionary Conference, 364. 84 John Kania, Fay Hanleybrown, Jennifer Splansky Juster, “Essential Mindset Shifts for Collective Impact”, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2014. 85 C.W. Service, Our West China Mission, 395.
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a sense of social and civic duty…Without any abandonment of the educational ideals of
our fathers we must now exalt the newer ideals of social justice, social service, social
responsibility.86
Churches in Canada, the United States and Great Britain were involved in the collective
formation of large social institutions, to improve the living conditions of their citizens, and
university curriculums were designed to prepare students for this type of social engagement.
Since the latter part of the 19th century, the catalyst for their collective action was the need to
address social concerns rather than reaching a doctrinal consensus to promote religion.87 This
social gospel philosophy, which viewed social interaction from a humanistic rather than
eschatological premise, was incorporated into the design of WCUU. The missions developed a
curriculum around subject content such as medical education but did not engage in discussions to
develop a unified doctrinal agreement about religious instruction. In the early years of the
university, a union in formal religious training “was not contemplated and provided for when the
Union University at Chengtu was organized”.88 Unions specifically formed for religious
conversion adhered to conservative theology, and during this period in Sichuan, the China Inland
Mission and the Church Missionary Society formed a union for traditional religious training.89
The British-based Church Missionary Society, although actively engaged in medical and
educational activities, promoted a more orthodox religious theology than the original founding
missions.90 In 1918, the Church Missionary Society of England officially became the fifth
member of the union university.91
The Medical College officially opened in 1914 and there were eight students registered in the
program, and five professors were assigned from the various missions including Charlie and
Omar Kilborn from the Methodist Church of Canada.92 Dr. H.L. Canright of the Board of
Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church USA, who had previously taken “an active
interest in all the plans for the advancement of our Union University”, was appointed to the
position of dean of the Medical College.93 The Methodist Episcopal Church USA had already
established a university, including a medical college in Nanjing under the supervision of Dr.
Virgil Hart, and their mission brought important expertise to WCUU.
86 “Declaration of Principles Adopted at the Eleventh Convention of the Religious Education Association”, Religious Education, Vol. 9, Issue 2, (1914), 98. 87 Cui Dan, “The Cultural Contribution of British Protestant Missionaries to China’s National Development During the 1920s”, Ph.D. diss., London School of Economics and Political Science, 1996, 24, http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/2413/ 1/U615362.pdf. 88 O.L. Kilborn, “Szechwan”, in The China Mission Yearbook, 1917, ed. E.C. Lobenstine, (Shanghai: The Christian Literature Society for China, 1917), 256, https://archive.org/stream/chinamissionyear08chin/chinamissionyear08 chin_djvu.txt. 89 Ibid. 90 Cui Dan, “The Cultural Contribution of British Protestant Missionaries to China’s National Development During the 1920s”, 31. 91 “Board of Governor Minutes”, West China Union University, (25-26 September 1918, #300), http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-272-4326.pdf. 92 C.W. Service, Our West China Mission, 397. 93 H.L. Canright, “Report of Chengtu Medical Work”, 48.
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Figure 8: The first medical college, staff and students. Back row left to right:
Dr. Service (Methodist Church of Canada), Dr. Irwin (Methodist Episcopal Church USA),
Dr. Canright - Dean (Methodist Episcopal Church USA), Dr. Morse (American Baptist
Foreign Mission Society), Dr. Kilborn (Methodist Church of Canada)
(Source: Our West China Mission, 397)
The medical curriculum was a six-year program and this included course work and clinical
training at the Canadian Methodist Hospital. The early years were difficult and during the 1911
Revolution, WCUU ceased operations and in 1914:
as the first world war began at about the same time and also as for several years after the
Revolution there was much political unrest in Szechwan, the early years of medical
education were very much disturbed, and once or twice the University was unable to
admit a new class on account of local wars, etc. But in spite of all difficulties the first
class was graduated in 1920, and consisted of four men.94
In May 1920, the teaching staff lost one of its members when Kilborn died while on furlough.
“Like other medical men, Dr. Kilborn was seized with the great importance of medical
education”, The Globe reported, and he was “one of the leading men of the Union University of
West China”.95 Charlie, representing the missionaries, delivered these thoughts at his funeral:
“WCUU owes much to him, both in its genesis and its development. From the beginning he was
a member of its Senate and of its teaching staff, having taught physiology to the medical and
dental students”.96
The missions expected their employees to assume leadership positions and these assignments
would rotate due to staff furloughs. In Charlie’s case, “he divided his services between the
Medical College he loved and served so consistently [and] the patients of the two hospitals here
who depended upon his skill”.97 Over the years, Charlie would sit as a member of the Senate and
94 “Medical Education in the West China Union University”, WCUU Radio Broadcast, 5. 95 The Globe, “Sees in Death of Dr. Kilborn a Heavy Blow”, May 22, 1920, 9. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail; The Globe, “Year at Home Ends in Death of Missionary: Rev. O.L. Kilborn Dies During Furlough From China”, May 19, 1920, 8. 96 C.W. Service, Funeral Address: “A Service of Tribute to the Late Omar Leslie Kilborn, M.D., D.D.”, The Missionary
Outlook, 150. 97 T.H. Williams, “Dr. Charles Winfield Service”, The West China Missionary News, (1930), 39, http://images.
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serve on committees dealing with operational and academic issues. He also taught surgery,
obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics, and public health, and in his position as superintendent of the
Canadian Methodist Hospital, he would oversee the clinical training.98 One year, he allocated 40
hours per week to the Medical College, and one of his students provided this perspective of his
professor’s approach to teaching and medical care.99
As a teacher he was always exceedingly earnest. He was always on time. I have known
him to be detained in the operating room till ten minutes to one. I knew he had not eaten
his dinner, but he met us in the classroom at one o’clock just the same. His lectures were
always thoroughly prepared. He did not enter the classroom and just say what he
happened to think about at the moment. His attitude towards the sick was an inspiration.
I have known him [to] stay four hours continuously by the bedside of some poor sick
Chinese in an effort to save his life. He was a foreigner but he showed such a wonderful
spirit of sacrifice and love that he was an example to us, his students. We must keep that
spirit alive in our College.100
One area of particular interest for Charlie was the teaching of obstetrics. Charlie and Robina lost
their first child during a difficult labour in Canada, and Charlie recognized that a cesarean
delivery could have potentially saved his daughter’s life.101 However, it was the turn of the
century, and this procedure was rarely performed due to the high maternal mortality rate. It was
just a few years after this personal tragedy that cesarean deliveries became more common
because of medical advances in both surgical and aseptic techniques.102 Charlie performed
cesarean deliveries in Sichuan, and in one case, an influential family summoned Charlie to their
Chengdu home. At this particular time, there were two rival armies vying for control of the
provincial capital which was a regular occurrence during the warlord period from 1916-1928.
As they proceeded through the barricades, Charlie was in the lead carrying a lantern, and when
questioned, at the checkpoints, his reply was simple: “missionary doctor on errand of mercy”.103
Once at the home, it was determined that the woman needed a cesarean section, and they had to
immediately proceed back through the dangerous checkpoints to the hospital. The delivery was
a success, and both the mother and son were able to return home a few days later. Fortunately,
their return trip was incident free as one of the rival armies had retreated, and the streets were
once again calm.
Over the years, Charlie would continue his interest in this field of medicine, and from 1924-
1930, he was in charge of developing the program.104 One of the doctors trained by the
library.yale.edu/divinitycontent/dayrep/9866641_1930_032-004_eng.pdf. 98 “Catalogue 1915-1916”, West China Union University, 7, http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/ West_China_Union_University/RG011-278-4397.pdf.; “University Faculty”, Annual Announcement 1925-1926, West China Union University, 16, http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_ University/RG011-278-4398.pdf. 99 Beaton, Great Living, 21. 100 Ibid., 29. 101 Ibid., 9. 102 Wendy Mitchinson, Giving Birth in Canada 1900-1950, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002), 232, 239-240. 103 Beaton, Great Living, 5. 104 E.C. Wilford, “West China Union University: Faculty of Medicine”, China Medical Journal, Vol. 38, No. 9, (1924), 757; West China Union University Annual Announcement 1926-1927, (Chengtu: The University, June 1926), 89,
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professors was Dr. Yoh Ih-chen. She would graduate in 1932, as the first female medical
graduate from WCUU, and later became head of obstetrics and gynecology.105
The First Graduate in Dentistry
Huang Tianqi was the first dental graduate in China.106 Charlie met Tianqi when he was a boy
playing outside the hospital in Leshan, and Charlie and Robina were so impressed by his intellect
and character, that they arranged for Tianqi to attend school. Additionally, they provided the
opportunity to learn English.107 When Tianqi was older, he became interested in health care, and
Charlie began to train Tianqi as a medical assistant.108
Figure 9: Dr. Service and a nursing assistant attending to a patient; observing is Huang Tianqi
(Source: The United Church of Canada Archives, Toronto. 76.001P/5951. Dr. Charles Winfield Service
and assistant dressing a patient’s foot, n.d. Francie Service)
Tianqi attended high school in Chengdu, and after the Services went on furlough, he stayed with
the Thompson family. Dr. John Thompson was a pioneer dentist and in 1921, as dean of the
Department of Dentistry from 1920-1923, he had the honour of presenting Tianqi with his dental
degree.109 When reflecting on this moment, Thompson noted that “when Dr. Whang, the boy I
supported graduated it was the proudest day of my life. At that time I happened to be dean”.110
http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-278-4398; “Board of Governors Minutes”, West China Union University, (4 July 1930 # G899), http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/ UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-272-4330.pdf. 105 “WCUU Period 1910-1949”, West China Medical Center Sichuan University, http://202.115.44.126:8080/ wccmsbrief2.htm; “Staff List Spring 1949”, West China Union University, http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/ UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-279-4407.pdf. 106 “Chronicle”, West China School of Stomatology Sichuan University, http://www.hxkq.org/en/js2_en.shtml. 107 Beaton, Great Living, 20-21. 108 It is important to note that the spelling of Dr. Huang Tianqi’s name varies due to changes in English transliteration, and he is also referred to as Dr. T.C. Whang, Dr. Hwang, and Dr. Whang T’ien-chi in official documents. 109 “Senate Minutes”, West China Union University, (3 June 1920, #1070, #1071; 10 March 1921, #1215; 2 March 1922, #1380), http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-275-4362.pdf. 110 J.E. Thompson, “Dentistry in West China”, Dominion Dental Journal, Vol. 37, (1925), 228, University of Toronto-Harry R. Abbott Dentistry Library.
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Thompson expected indigenous dentistry to develop under the leadership of Dr. Huang because
“he knows how to teach the difficult subjects in the Chinese language”.111
Figure 10: Dr. Huang Tianqi, University of Toronto
(Source: Service Family)
At the Senate Committee Meeting in April 1926, Huang was granted a leave of absence from the
Dental Faculty, to take postgraduate training at the University of Toronto, so he would be
“qualified to render greater service in the future” to WCUU.112 In 1928, Huang received the
degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) and “his ability and application to work won for him
whole-hearted commendation of the faculty of the RCDS and his personal qualities were
appreciated by all who came in contact with him”.113 Upon returning to Chengdu, Dr. Huang
was appointed to the position of assistant professor in the Faculty of Dentistry, and he worked
with the dental missionaries to expand dental education.114
Figure 11: Drs. Huang and Thompson with patient
China Museum of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu
(Source: Service Family)
111 Ibid. 112 “Senate Minutes”, West China Union University, (1 April 1926, #1921), http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/ UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-275-4363.pdf. 113 “Whang Scholarship Fund”, Dominion Dental Journal, Vol. 41, (1929), 23, University of Toronto - Harry R. Abbott Dentistry Library. 114 “Senate Minutes”, West China Union University, (21 June 1928, # 2236), http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/ UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-275-4364.pdf.
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Robina’s Contributions
This was also a busy period for Robina. While her familial responsibilities continued to expand
with the birth of her son William in 1914, she also remained committed to fulfilling her nursing
obligations to the West China Mission. As married women were not officially appointed by the
General Board of Missions, the mission reports reflect this gender bias and only record very
general descriptions about their contributions.115 Often there are a few sentences thanking them
for their valuable assistance to the mission field or their name appears in publications listing the
official staff for the mission hospitals and WCUU. In the case of Robina’s involvement, various
documents indicated that Robina provided clinical nursing services in Chengdu, as well as
teaching at the training school for nurses, initiated in 1912, at the Canadian Methodist Hospital.
In later years, Robina joined the staff of WCUU as an English instructor in the Faculty of Arts.116
Her early involvement in Leshan is documented by Beaton, and he mentions Robina’s “efficient
nursing” where “Mrs. Service, as she did in those days for all the operations, sterilized the
instruments in a steamer over a pot of water in the kitchen, and laid out all the dressings”.117 The
CMM adhered to Victorian family values where married women were socialized to take care of
the private sphere reflected in the home, and the public sphere of medicine was officially
reserved for unmarried women and male missionaries.118 Although Robina was providing
significant nursing services in Sichuan since 1903, official reports state that the first nurses,
appointed by the General Board of Missions, started to arrive towards the end of 1908.119 These
nurses were single women officially appointed to a designated full-time paid position whereas
the services provided by married nurses like Robina were rendered in a voluntary capacity.120
Figure 12: Sample of Robina’s charcoal drawings
(Source: Service Family)
115 Cory Willmott, “The Paradox of Gender among West China Missionary Collectors, 1920-1950”, Social Sciences and Missions, Vol. 25, (2012), 132-133. 116 “The School of Nursing”, Canadian Methodist Mission: West China Reports of Work for the Year 1924, 54, 78.096C, Box 16, The United Church of Canada Archives, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; “Annual Announcement 1925-1926”, West China Union University, 35, http://divinity-adhoc.library.Yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_ University/RG011-278-4398.pdf. 117 Beaton, Great Living, 13-14. 118 Helen Woodrow, “Julia Salter Earle: Seeking Social Justice”, in Creating This Place: Women, Family, and Class in St. John’s, 1900-1950, eds. Linda Cullum and Marilyn Porter, (Montreal; Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014), 75. 119 United Church of Canada Archives, “Administrative History of West China Medical Missions”, in General Council Archives Guide to Holdings Related to West China Medical Missions (1800-1950), Toronto, 7, http://www.united-church.ca/sites/default/files/handbook_research-guide-west-china.pdf. 120 Willmott, “The Paradox of Gender”, 132-133; Grypma, Healing Henan, 10.
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When talking about Robina’s life, it is important to recognize her abilities as a gifted artist. She
began to draw in her teenage years, and her art collection depicted a range of expressive charcoal
drawings, including visually striking portraits and detailed animal artworks, capturing the spirit
of a horse and a tiger.
Canadian School in West China
The Canadian School in West China had a positive influence on the Service children. It was
established in 1909, in a small Chinese building, and it would eventually move to its permanent
site on the grounds of WCUU in 1918.121 The teachers followed the Canadian curriculum and
the school was accredited with the Ontario provincial school system. Winnifred would be the
first student to take the high school entrance exam, and in June 1916, she passed with honours.122
Figure 13: Canadian School 1918. Back Row: fourth from right Margaret,
third from right Winnifred; Fourth Row: far left Frances; First Row: far left William
(Source: Canadian School in West China, 57)
The family would return to Canada in 1918 for their regular furlough, and the three girls would
continue to live in Toronto to complete their high school education and their post-secondary
training. They would not return to China. William would return to China in 1922, and he
attended both the Canadian School in Chongqing and Chengdu where he would graduate from
elementary school in 1926. Like his sisters, he would also complete his high school studies in
Canada before attending the University of Toronto.123
Furlough: Johns Hopkins University
During their furlough, Charlie travelled to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland to
take postgraduate training. In addition to his clinical exposure in the field of obstetrics and
gynecology, Charlie also focused his studies on advances in public health. The Senate of
WCUU recommended, in December 1917, that Charlie “pay special attention to hygiene and
public health while on furlough to enable him to teach these subjects upon his return”, and he
was awarded a postgraduate fellowship sponsored by the China Medical Board of the
121 C.W.M. Service, “An Address at the Sixtieth Anniversary Reunion, June 22, 1969”, in Canadian School in West China, ed. Brockman Brace, (Toronto: The Hunter Rose Company, 1974), 46. 122 Lorenia Edmonds, “The History of the Canadian School 1909-1916”, Canadian School in West China, 42. 123 The Canadian School Association holds an annual luncheon every October in Toronto, Ontario. Their website provides information about ongoing activities.
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Rockefeller Foundation.124 In 1915, the Rockefeller Foundation purchased the Peking Union
Medical College from the London Missionary Society, and they authorized a curriculum based
on the Johns Hopkins University model and instituted English as the language of instruction.125
The Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health was founded in 1916 with resources
from the Rockefeller Foundation, and it was the pioneer school of public health in the United
States.126
North America had made great strides in legislating public health and Charlie wanted to extend
the “victories of preventative medicine” to the citizens of Sichuan.127 Charlie would contend that
the medical missionary has a “greater responsibility to the Chinese than the mere establishment
of hospitals and medical colleges, medical men must be ready and free to preach disease
prevention as well as treat ailments”, and in terms of teaching the next generation of Chinese
doctors, “missionary medical colleges must place public health in the forefront, so that graduates
may be more than mere practitioners. Students must be encouraged to ‘talk shop’ on disease
prevention. Popular books and articles must be published”.128 The Canadian Mission Press
published public health materials to enable the doctors to ‘talk shop’ and to build greater
awareness within the Chinese community.
During his time in Baltimore, Charlie also had the opportunity to serve as assistant
superintendent of Johns Hopkins Hospital for four months. The reputation of this institution for
medical excellence was well known, and when being introduced as a speaker at the Empire Club
of Canada, President R.A. Stapells shared these thoughts:
As to the medium, Dr. Service is quiet and modest, but a very able man, who is so
anxious to keep abreast of the times in his profession that early in the year he came to
Johns Hopkins University to take a post-graduate course in their surgical department, and
I am perfectly convinced that if he wanted to stay there they would have made his stay a
permanent one.129
Charlie was offered a permanent position on the hospital staff, and even though he chose to
return to China, his relationship with Johns Hopkins Hospital remained, and he returned in 1927
to update his medical knowledge.130
124 “Senate Minutes”, West China Union University, (6 December 1917, #716), http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale. edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-275-4361.pdf; The Rockefeller Foundation Annual Report for 1919, 299, https://rockefeller.geminiodyssey.org/documents/20181/28210/Annual-Report1919.pdf/16647a33-a511-4f25-8d84-94b0cb8e7a25,299; “Senate Minutes”, West China Union University, (24 January 1918, #734), http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-275-4361.pdf. 125 “Medicine in China”, The Rockefeller Foundation A Digital History, https://rockfound.rockarch.org/china-medical-board. 126 “Public Health at Johns Hopkins”, The Rockefeller Foundation A Digital History, https://rockfound.rockarch. org/public-health-at-johns-hopkins. 127 Charles W. Service, “Public Health in China”, The Canadian Journal of Medicine and Surgery, 370. 128 Ibid., 373; Charles W. Service, M.D., “How to Promote National Health in China”, The West China Missionary News, (July-August 1924), 32. 129 R. A. Stapells in C. W. Service, “Some of China’s Problems, Address to the Empire Club of Canada”, 30 October 1919, 369-384, http://speeches.empireclub.org/search. 130 Beaton, Great Living, 17.
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Medical–Dental College Fundraising Campaign
Charlie’s furlough was extended to accommodate a cross-Canada tour to gain support for a new
Medical-Dental College.131 According to Beaton, Charlie saw this period as a fundraising
opportunity, and “he was filled with a single idea. He offered his services to the Board of
Missions for the purpose of raising enough money among the doctors, dentists and nurses...to
build the sorely-needed Medical-Dental College”.132 Currently, they were allotted space in a
number of buildings throughout the campus, and this new facility would provide a permanent
home for medical-dental training. The “opening of a Dental Faculty in connection with the
University” was a recent decision. In December 1917, the Senate of WCUU tasked Charlie
along with the president of WCUU Dr. J. Beech, and dental missionary Dr. A.W. Lindsay, to
recommend a policy to integrate dentistry into the university curriculum.133 This would be the
first university-level dental program offered in China. Both the medical and dental missionaries
firmly believed that the training of future generations of Chinese doctors and dentists, at this new
college in Chengdu, would “be an invaluable piece of constructive work for that great land”.134
Motivated by his belief that “the promotion of health promises to be the leading ideal of the
twentieth century”, Charlie reached out to medical, dental and nursing audiences through
newspaper and journal articles, individual meetings, small group gatherings, annual meetings of
professional associations, and large speakers’ forums.135 His fundraising prospectus, entitled
Spend Ten Minutes in China, was mailed to every prospective donor from the medical, dental
and nursing communities throughout Canada.136 In his numerous presentations across Canada,
Charlie argued for a global conceptualization of health care and described the health disparity
between Canada and China.
There is no such thing as a public health bureau…No one knows the birth-rate; no one
knows the death-rate. A mere guess would say the death rate is forty per thousand; that is
at least double the rate of our own country. We estimate that 2,000,000 Chinese die
annually from tuberculosis alone; that anywhere from seventy percent to eighty percent
die under one year of age…There is only one way to solve this physical problem of
China, and that is by means of medical education…[and] a great effort is being made to
outfit dental, medical and nursing institutions.137
Charlie approached Dr. R.A. Reeve to organize a fundraising committee to finance the proposed
medical-dental building at WCUU. Reeve had served as dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the
University of Toronto (U of T), from 1896 to 1908, and as the first president of the Alumni
Association, he successfully oversaw the fundraising and construction of Convocation Hall.138
131 “A Great Opportunity”, Dominion Dental Journal, Vol. 31, No. 11, (1919), 410. 132 Beaton, Great Living, 25. 133 “Senate Minutes”, West China Union University, (20 December 1917, # 727), http://divinity-adhoc.library. yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-275-4361.pdf. 134 C. W. Service, “Dental and Medical Needs in China”, Dominion Dental Journal, Vol. 31, No. 2, (1919), 39, 41. 135 Charles W. Service, “Public Health in China”, The Canadian Journal of Medicine and Surgery, 370. 136 Drs. Lindsay, Thompson, Mullett and Anderson, “A Message from Canadian Dentists in Szechuan Province, West China to their Colleagues in Canada”, Dominion Dental Journal, Vol. 33, No. 6, (1921), 261. 137 C. W. Service, “Some of China’s Problems, Address to the Empire Club of Canada”, 30 October 1919, 369-384. 138 “Officers and Members of the Faculty since its origin”, Faculty of Medicine: Session 1915-1916, (Toronto: University Press, 1915), 25; “U of T Chronology”, Heritage University of Toronto, http://heritage.utoronto.ca/
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Reeve’s network of contacts was extensive having served as president of the Canadian and
Ontario Medical Associations and the Toronto Academy of Medicine, as well as being only the
second Canadian to serve as the president of the British Medical Association.139 Reeve also
supported the Missionary Society of the Metropolitan Methodist Church in Toronto, and this
involvement provided insight into the aspirations of the medical missionaries.140 All of these
connections furnished credibility to the fundraising project and a Medical-Dental Group was
formed with Reeve serving as the chair.141 The campaign was designed as an “inter-
denominational appeal” and was “not related directly to one mission board” but rather a general
appeal targeting individuals engaged in the health care sector.142
Beech and Charlie attended the January 1919 meeting, of the Executive Committee of the Board
of Governors in New York, to submit the plans for the proposed Medical-Dental College. The
Executive Committee “received with great satisfaction a letter from Dr. R.A. Reeve of Toronto,
proposing that the surgeons, physicians and dentists of Canada shall co-operate in the
development of the Medical School” and in response, the Executive Committee agreed to “aid in
the proposed co-operation in every way it may find practicable”.143 For this specific meeting,
Charlie “acted as assistant to the secretary”, so he could officially communicate to his colleagues
in Toronto “that their suggestions concerning the housing of the Medical Department will be sent
to our Architect and the drawings for this building or buildings, when received, will be submitted
for their consideration”.144 The Medical-Dental Group liaised with the London-based architect
of WCUU, Fred Rowntree, whose vision blended Chinese and western architectural elements.145
Unfortunately, just a few weeks after this meeting, Reeve passed away and at his public funeral,
Chancellor Bowles of Victoria College “spoke of Dr. Reeve’s great interest in medical work in
China and of his ambition to establish educational institutes in Chengtu, to which he had devoted
much of his time and energy”.146 From his estate, an amount of $7,500 had been bequeathed to
the missionary fund of the Methodist Church of Canada, and the members of the Medical-Dental
Group requested that his donation be designated for the new medical-dental building fund.147
The Methodist Church agreed to this request and Charlie would later reflect that this was a
Chronology. 139 “Obituary: Richard A. Reeve, B.A., M.D., L.L.D.”, The Canadian Practitioner and Review, Vol. 44, (1919), 54. 140 “Subscriptions and Donations to the Missionary Society of the Methodist Church: Toronto Society”, Sixty-Seventh Annual Report of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, (Toronto: Published at the Methodist Mission Rooms, 1891), 1. 141 “Editorial: Medical China”, The Canadian Journal of Medicine and Surgery, Vol. 48, No. 1, (1920), 2. 142 Chas. W. Service, “An Appeal to Nurses on Behalf of a Worthy Enterprise in Chengtu, West China”, The Canadian Nurse and Hospital Review, Vol. 16, No. 3, (1920), 154. 143 “Minutes of the Executive Committee, Board of Governors”, West China Union University, (New York, 13 January 1919, #271), http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-273-4338.pdf. 144 Ibid., #272. 145 “Poster celebrating the work of Fred Rowntree in Chengtu”, http://www.guise.me.uk/gallery/rowntree/ chengtu/chengtu.htm. 146 The Globe, “Great Service for Dr. Reeve: Public Funeral at Convocation Hall of University of Toronto: Fine Tribute Paid”, January 31, 1919, 6. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail. 147 “Editorial: Medical China”, The Canadian Journal of Medicine and Surgery, 2.
24
splendid starter” for the fund.148 An editorial in The Canadian Journal of Medicine and Surgery
noted that from this moment “a campaign was then quietly begun in Toronto by the doctors,
dentists, and nurses, and is now being carried on all over Canada…to build and equip the two
first buildings in which young Chinese will be taught”.149
The decision of the Methodist Church, to redirect Reeve’s contribution, signalled that the church
was realizing the potential of the campaign. When Charlie first pitched his fundraising idea, the
reaction from the church leadership was mixed. While some individuals immediately supported
the initiative, other church personnel remained unconvinced that this was an appropriate
direction for the CMM. There was an ongoing debate about the level of support for medical
education versus the delivery of clinical services in the hospitals and dispensaries. This debate
was also taking place at the Board of Governors, and at the annual meeting of September 1917, a
resolution was passed requesting that the university members carefully “consider the very
important inter-relation between the policy of the University in medical education and the proper
development of the general medical work”.150
There was also concern that the Canadian health care community would not identify with the
medical needs of Sichuan. For those who were initially sceptical about this cross-Canada tour,
they were encouraged that “he actually got in cash from these nurses and doctors, thousands and
thousands of dollars. He interested them all and wrote letters to…hundreds” of potential donors
while in Canada, and Charlie continued his letter writing campaign upon his return to Sichuan.151
In February 1919, Endicott officially contacted Rowntree to report “the linking up of the Medical
and Dental Fraternities in Canada, for the support of the whole of the Medical and Dental work
in the University, and more particularly for the erection and equipment of the medical College at
Chengtu”.152
To promote the fundraising initiative, Victoria College hosted a dinner, in September 1919, for
the members of the Board of Governors who were meeting in Toronto.153 Charlie shared the
proposal of the Medical-Dental Group “to secure more adequate facilities for training Chinese
doctors, dentists and nurses” and the Canadian Journal of Medicine and Surgery noted that
the meeting was a most encouraging send-off for the new project and it seems certain that
the medical, dental and nursing professions of Canada and Newfoundland will rally
148 Chas. W. Service, “An Appeal to Nurses on Behalf of a Worthy Enterprise in Chengtu, West China”, The Canadian Nurse and Hospital Review, 153. 149 “Editorial: Medical China”, The Canadian Journal of Medicine and Surgery, 2. 150 “Minutes of the Board of Governors”, West China Union University, (Boston, 12-13 September 1917, #258), http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/ RG011-272-4326.pdf. 151 Endicott, Memorial Service for Dr. C.W. Service. 152 Fred Rowntree, “Architect’s report to be presented to the Board of Governors”, West China Union University, (June 1920, #5,6), http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/ RG011-296-4618.pdf. 153 The Globe, “Urgent Need in W. China: Governors of Union Christian University Meeting in Toronto for Medical College: Strong Appeal Made to Representative Doctors and Dentists”, September 12, 1919, 5. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail.
25
splendidly to give West China a measure of the privileges in skilled men and women and
scientific facilities for their work that Canada enjoys so bountifully.154
Some of the members of the Medical-Dental Group had experience interacting with architects,
through their involvement in the construction of the medical building of U of T, from 1901-
1903.155 Additionally, Dr. J.N.E. Brown, superintendent of the Toronto General Hospital, had
studied the construction of hospitals in England and Scotland, on behalf of the Government of
Ontario, and he had also led a subcommittee on hospital construction for the American Hospital
Association.156 The Medical-Dental Group suggested a “unit” approach to architectural design
similar to the medical building at the University of Toronto.157 Uniformity in room size allowed
for “elasticity for the naming and also developing of departments on an uniform basis” and as
Rowntree was also designing architectural plans for a biology building, there were discussions
about the allocation of departments between these two buildings.158 It was suggested by
Rowntree, to the Board of Governors at their July 1920 annual meeting, that
In view of the fact that Dr. Service tells me he expects to leave Canada for China about
the middle of August, might the best course not be to send the plans of both these
buildings to him for consultation with his Committee in Canada, and then for him to take
them on to China, and discuss them with the Senate, rather than submit them at once
direct to the Senate, without them having the value of the knowledge and information
which Dr. Service could give to the final consideration of the problem on the Field?159
In terms of moving the project forward, it was agreed by the Board of Governors that “the
Architect submits revised plans for the Medical Block, embodying suggestions by the Medical
Committee in Toronto and Dr. Service”.160 It was further resolved by the Board of Governors
“that we authorize the preparation of the detailed plans and the erection of the building of the
Medical Block, subject to the approval of the Senate, and of Dr. Service”.161 Institutional
authorization had been secured for the new medical-dental building which was to be constructed
by the CMM with funds raised from Canadian sources.
The response from the nurses exemplified the positive reaction of Canadians towards the
fundraising campaign. Charlie spoke about the work of the Toronto nurses led by Miss Kate
Mathieson of the Riverdale Isolation Hospital and Miss Jean Gunn, superintendent of nurses at
the Toronto General Hospital. Both women held leadership roles in a number of organizations
154 “Medical, Dental and Nursing Work in West China”, The Canadian Journal of Medicine and Surgery, Vol. 46, No. 5, (1919), 358. 155 “U of T Chronology”, Heritage University of Toronto, http://heritage.utoronto.ca/Chronology. 156 “Drs. J.N.E. Brown and Bruce Smith Return After Visiting British Hospitals”, The Canadian Journal of Medicine and Surgery, Vol. 24, (1908), 253; “Hospital Construction”, The Canadian Journal of Medicine and Surgery, Vol. 24, (1908), 302-303; Dr. J.N.E. Brown, “Report of Sub-Committee on Hospital Construction”, Transactions of the American Hospital Association: Tenth Annual Conference, Vol. 10, (1908), (Detroit: Published by the Association Office of the Secretary, 1908), 303-319. 157 Fred Rowntree, “Architect’s report to be presented to the Board of Governors”, West China Union University. 158 Ibid. 159 Ibid. 160 “Board of Governors Minutes”, West China Union University, (2 July 1920 # 426), http://divinity-adhoc.library. yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-272-4326.pdf. 161 Ibid.
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including the Canadian National Association of Trained Nurses and the Graduate Nurses’
Association of Ontario. During this period Gunn, as supervisor of the Toronto General Hospital
School of Nursing, was advocating for Toronto-based nursing students to attend U of T for
centralized lectures.162 University-based training for nurses was also the position being
advocated by Charlie and his colleagues. In an article published in The Canadian Nurse and
Hospital Review, Charlie summarized the nursing vision of the West China Mission.
Of course, nurse training in China is being carried on in other cities than those in which
colleges are located and this work will expand in many centres, as hospitals multiply and
missionary nurses increase in number. But particular emphasis must be laid on first-class
facilities for training Chinese nurses in college centres, because of the intimate relation
between the education of medical students and the work of nurses in well-organized
hospitals.163
The Toronto nurses responded to this vision for China, and through the “co-operation of a group
of busy nurses working systematically”, they collected close to $3,000 by distributing the
prospectus Spend Ten Minutes in China and then canvasing their alumnae and nursing
associations. Nurses in other cities and towns joined the campaign, and Charlie highlighted the
effort of one hospital nursing superintendent in an Ontario town who secured promises from each
of her nursing graduates, undergraduates and nurses-in-training, and also undertook to “canvass
every doctor in her county as they come to her hospital for professional duties”.164 Each
contribution was classified in the categories of nurse, doctor, dentist, and friend.
The initial goal was to raise all of the required funds, estimated to be $100,000, by June 1920, as
Charlie was scheduled to return to Sichuan during the summer. Although Charlie was very
encouraged by the effort of the fundraising committee, he was also disillusioned that only
$20,000 was raised because this meant construction of the medical-dental building would be
delayed. Other committee members were more objective and suggested that there were
significant obstacles to initiating a fundraising campaign immediately after the First World War,
and the real success was the fact the medical-dental project was a serious topic of discussion
within the church community, the health care professions, and Canadian society in general.165
Prior to departing for Sichuan, Charlie met with the five-member organizing committee:
• Nursing: Miss Kate Mathieson, nursing superintendent of the Riverdale Isolation
Hospital, vice-president of the Canadian National Association of Trained Nurses
• Doctors: Dr. N. A. Powell, professor of medicine U of T, executive of the Ontario
Medical Library Association; Dr. J.N.E. Brown, superintendent of the Toronto
General Hospital - the teaching hospital for U of T
162 Bonnie L. Richardson, “Book Reviews: Jean I. Gunn: Nursing Leader by Natalie Riegler”, Nursing History Review, Vol. 8, (2000), 201. 163 Chas. W. Service, “An Appeal to Nurses on Behalf of a Worthy Enterprise in Chengtu, West China”, The Canadian Nurse and Hospital Review, 153. 164 Ibid., 153-154. 165 Beaton, Great Living, 25; “Rev. C.W. Service, B.A., M.D., and Mrs. Service”, The Missionary Bulletin, Vol. 16, No. 3 (1920), 495-496, The United Church of Canada Archives, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Austin, Saving China, 102.
27
• Dentists: Dr. A. E. Webster, dean of the Faculty of Dentistry U of T, editor of the
Dominion Dental Journal; Dr. W. E. Willmott, professor of dentistry U of T,
secretary of the Ontario Dental Board166
Willmott was the treasurer of the campaign, and as a member of the Metropolitan Methodist
Church and secretary of the Ontario Dental Board, he was well placed to promote the
campaign.167 The Willmott name was synonymous with dental education, as his father Dr. J.B.
Willmott, was the founder of dental education in Canada, and he was the first dean of dentistry at
U of T.168 The active participation of the senior leadership, from the dental and medical faculties
of U of T and its teaching hospital, placed these institutions at the centre of an evolving
transnational partnership with West China Union University.
The organizing committee in Toronto continued to fundraise and publish articles in their
respective health care publications. The 1921 message in The Canadian Practitioner and Review
was simple and direct: “Dr. Service and his friends ask the people of Canada to assist in the
building and equipment of this medico-dental college” designed to “teach medicine, dentistry,
pharmacy and nursing”.169 The dental missionaries, Drs. Lindsay, Thompson, Mullett and
Anderson, wrote a joint appeal to the Dominion Dental Journal requesting their colleagues to
contribute to the building fund so that “this College shall be a distinct contribution to the
university from Canada”.170 In a separate appeal by Thompson, he noted that “ours is the only
Dental Faculty in all this great land…[and] it is vitally important that we secure Chinese
dentists…We covet for every Canadian dentist a share in this great work”.171
Figure 14: Medical-Dental College
(Source: Service Family)
166 “News Items: The Chengtu Medico-Dental College Prospect”, The Canadian Practitioner and Review, Vol. 46, (1921), 286. 167 “Subscriptions and Donations to the Missionary Society of the Methodist Church: Toronto Society”, Sixty-Seventh Annual Report of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, 1. 168 “Willmott, James Branston”, Dictionary of Canadian Biography, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/willmott_ james_branston_14E.html. 169 “News Items: The Chengtu Medico-Dental College Prospect”, The Canadian Practitioner and Review, 287. 170 Drs. Lindsay, Thompson, Mullett and Anderson, “A Message from Canadian Dentists in Szechuan Province, West China to their Colleagues in Canada”, Dominion Dental Journal, 263. 171 Dr. J.E. Thompson, “Dentistry in West China”, Dominion Dental Journal, Vol. 33, No.8, (1921), 318.
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The vision of the fundraising committee was to build a transnational health care community, by
strengthening people-to-people ties between Canada and China, and the ongoing appeals were
successful. Within a few years, the Methodist Church of Canada officially agreed to build a
large well-equipped Medical-Dental College.172 The actual construction of the building was
delayed until 1925 when Walter Small, the building superintendent, returned from furlough. The
Medical-Dental College was completed in the spring of 1928.173
While the Medical-Dental Building was under construction, the Cadbury Education Building was
being built by the Friends’ Foreign Mission Association of Great Britain and Ireland.174 In 1914,
the Board of Governors had approved a fundraising strategy to identify wealthy individuals “who
will assume responsibility for buildings or other important features of the work, and the co-
operation of the individual Boards is earnestly sought in securing such friends for the work in
their own several constituencies”.175 The construction of the Cadbury Education Building
followed this fundraising model as George Cadbury, a prominent British Quaker who had
amassed a considerable fortune through his confectionary company, contributed the required
finances to the Friends’ Foreign Mission Association.176 The CMM also followed this model
and funds provided by Jarius Hart of Halifax, Nova Scotia covered the construction costs of their
administration building, the Virgil C. Hart Memorial College, named in 1918 for its founding
superintendent.177
What differentiated the fundraising campaign for the Medical-Dental Building was the fact it did
not focus on acquiring one large donation but rather was a broad-based campaign to engage
many Canadians. This fundraising approach was first introduced by Charlie in 1908, when he
delivered a paper highlighting several fundraising principles for the Sichuan hospitals and
dispensaries. Charlie proposed that “it is a mistake to dun a few wealthy officials, gentry and
merchants for big sums rather than small sums from the many” for it is “the spirit that goes with
the gift that is the part that makes it really worth while”.178 He suggested a similar approach for
the fundraising campaign in Canada, and he commented on the importance of the donations from
nurses-in-training, which ranged from 50 cents to five dollars, for “the hope is for a wide
response from many, rather than a big response from a few”.179
This broad-based fundraising campaign expounded the beliefs of the new internationalist
movement symbolized by the formation of the League of Nations which had as “its object the
172 Beaton, Great Living, 25. 173 West China Union University Annual Announcement 1924-1925, 58, http://chronicles.dickinson.edu/specproj/ dsoninchina/images/wcuu_annual_announcement_1924-1925/wcuuannual1924-1925_058.htm; “Medical Education in the West China Union University”, West China Union University, WCUU Radio Broadcast April 13, 1943, 5, http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-280-4412.pdf. 174 “Campus Items”, The West China Missionary News, (April 1927), 15. 175 “Board of Governor Minutes”, West China Union University, (2 July 1920, #284), http://divinity-adhoc.library. yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-272-4326.pdf. 176 A.G. Gardiner, Life of George Cadbury, (London: Cassell and Company, 1923), 138. Judy (Graham) Cadbury, the granddaughter of Charlie and Robina, married an American, Warder Cadbury, who was related to the British branch of the Cadbury family supporting WCUU. 177 Semple, The Lord’s Domain, 330. 178 C. W. Service, “Self Support”, in West China Missionary Conference, 248. 179 Chas. W. Service, “An Appeal to Nurses on Behalf of a Worthy Enterprise in Chengtu, West China”, The Canadian Nurse and Hospital Review, 154.
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establishment of universal peace, and such a peace can be established only if it is based on social
justice”.180 The concept of universal social justice was a foundational tenet of the social gospel
movement, and Charlie encouraged Canadians to consider the notion of global interdependence,
as “we are living in a great bundle of nationhood nowadays and what is the concern of one is the
concern of all” and this included medical concerns in Sichuan.181 Access to affordable quality
health care was a fundamental right for all global citizens and as “the health of a nation is one of
its greatest assets”, the Medical-Dental Group encouraged Canadians to identify with and
financially support sustainable health care in China.182
Canadian Leadership on the Board of Governors
The Board of Governors of WCUU was composed of 15 members from Canada, the United
States and Great Britain. Each of the five uniting organizations appointed three representatives
and annual elections were held to select the leadership positions consisting of one chair, two
vice-chairs, two secretaries and one treasurer. The annual meeting of the Board of Governors
rotated between the three host countries and the Executive Committee met four times a year.
Aside from the official representatives, co-opted members from each missionary society were
elected and three prominent Canadians, who were active lay workers in the Methodist Church of
Canada, were recruited to serve on the Board of Governors: the Hon. Vincent Massey, the Hon.
Newton Rowell and Sir Joseph Flavelle.183
Vincent Massey served as a co-opted member for more than 25 years.184 In 1919, the Board of
Governors “recommended that Mr. Vincent Massey of Toronto be co-opted as a member of the
Board of Governors, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Sir Joseph Flavelle”.185
Massey brought a multi-faceted skillset to the Board of Governors including academic
credentials from his long association with the University of Toronto, business acumen as
president of the Massey-Harris Company, political insight having served in the cabinet of Prime
Minister Mackenzie King, and diplomatic understanding as the first Canadian minister to
Washington in 1926, and as the high commissioner to London in 1935.186 After completing his
tenure on the Board of Governors of WCUU, Massey would later serve as the first Canadian-
born governor general of Canada.187
The Hon. Newton Rowell held the positions of co-opted member, vice-chair and for one year
served as the chair of the Board of Governors, after the death of American Dr. John F. Goucher,
in 1922. Rowell, a prominent Toronto lawyer, was active in both provincial and federal politics
180 Hon. N.W. Rowell, The British Empire and world peace; Being the Burwash Memorial Lectures, delivered in Convocation Hall, University of Toronto, November, 1921, (Toronto: Victoria College Press, 1922), 237. 181 C. W. Service, “Some of China’s Problems, Address to the Empire Club of Canada”, 30 October 1919, 369-384. 182 Charles W. Service, “Dental and Medical Needs in China”, Dominion Dental Journal, 39. 183 West China Union University Annual Announcement 1926-1927, 2. 184 “Board of Trustees Minutes of Annual Meeting”, West China Union University, (2 November 1944), http:// divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-272-4320.pdf. 185 “Board of Governor Minutes”, West China Union University, (11-12 September 1919, #361), http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-272-4326.pdf. 186 “Vincent Massey”, The Governor General of Canada, https://www.gg.ca/en/governor-general/former-governors-general/vincent-massey. 187 J.L. Granatstein, “Vincent Massey”, The Canadian Encyclopedia, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/ en/article/massey-charles-vincent.
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having served the liberal party, as the leader of the opposition in Ontario from 1911-1917, and as
a cabinet member from 1917-1920, in the union government of Prime Minister Robert Borden.188
Rowell was a social gospeller and this was reflected in his political alignment with the social
reform movement in Canada. In 1919, as the president of the Privy Council, he was the architect
and promoter of the legislation to create a federal Department of Health which he noted “was a
new departure in the emphasis which it places on the conservation of the health of the public and
upon their social welfare”.189 Appointed the first federal minister of health, the minutes of the
September 1919 meeting of the Board of Governors noted that “a telegram was read from Hon.
N.W. Rowell, K.C., M.P., expressing regret that Parliamentary duties prevented him from being
present at the meeting of the Board”.190
Rowell was also an influential leader in the post-war international movement. He represented
Canada at the inaugural meeting of the League of Nations, in January 1920, and he was
instrumental in the formation of a national volunteer organization, in 1921, known as the League
of Nations Society in Canada.191 Rowell mobilized public opinion in support of international
cooperation and “the ideals of justice, brotherhood, and service”.192 He contended that the
missionary enterprise exemplified “the spirit of human brotherhood” through their work in
“hospitals for the sick, in orphanages for the children” and in providing the opportunity for
indigenous leadership to receive “their education in the schools and colleges established by
missionary organizations”.193 Rowell’s numerous speaking engagements, expounding the
benefits of international cooperation and universal brotherhood, took place during his tenure on
the Board of Governors and would have reinforced the transnational fundraising initiative of the
Medical-Dental Group.
Sir Joseph Flavelle served as both a co-opted member and chair of the Board of Governors. In
1923, he was appointed to replace fellow Canadian Newton Rowell, and he would hold the
position of chair until 1935.194 Flavelle was an influential businessman having amassed his
fortune through the meat packing firm, the William Davies Company, at that time the largest
pork producer in the British Empire.195 His influence extended into the financial community
through his involvement with the National Trust Company and the Canadian Bank of Commerce,
and also into merchandising through the department store, Simpsons.196 Flavelle was sometimes
188 “Newton Rowell, Making Medicare: The History of Healthcare in Canada, 1914-2007”, Canadian Museum of History, https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/hist/medicare/medic-1k08e.html. 189 Ibid. 190 “Board of Governor Minutes”, West China Union University, (11-12 September 1919, Third Session), http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-272-4326.pdf. 191 John D. Meehan, Chasing the Dragon in Shanghai: Canada’s Early Relations with China, 1858-1952, (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2011), 48; Margaret E. Prang, “Rowell, Newton Wesley”, Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 17, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/rowell_newton_wesley_17E.html. 192 Hon. N.W. Rowell, The British Empire and world peace, 259. 193 Ibid., 222. 194 The Globe, “University in China will have Canadian at Head of Board: Sir Joseph Flavelle is Appointed Head of Unique University”, September 28, 1923, 11. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail; Michael Bliss, “Flavelle, Sir Joseph Wesley”, Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 16, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/ flavelle_joseph_wesley_16E.html. 195 Flavelle’s hand-picked successor was Frederick Smale and Charlie and Robina’s daughter, Margaret (Service) Smale, married into this family. 196 Chancellors’ Circle of Benefactors, “Sir Joseph Flavelle”, University of Toronto, https://www.chancellorscircle.
31
referred to as the Rockefeller of Canada and according to his biographer, Michael Bliss, “his
church-born sense of stewardship underlay a lifetime of public service and philanthropy” and
this extended to WCUU where “his was mainly a fund-raising function” on the Board of
Governors.197 In official documents, there are references to his contributions to cover financial
shortfalls or additional costs for staff needs or equipment such as: “Sir Joseph Flavelle’s
financial guarantee”; “Final settlement with Sir J. Flavelle assisting”; “Flavelle $10,000
donation”.198 His financial support was sometimes given as matching amounts, and in one case,
he indicated to WCUU that if there was “hesitation in carrying the arrangement into effect, I will
be personally responsible for the whole amount if, in the many special things for which you have
to provide, you find this additional one a burden”.199
Flavelle dedicated considerable time to public service, and he chaired the provincial Royal
Commission on the restructuring of the University of Toronto, more commonly referred to as the
Flavelle Commission. Its recommendations, in 1906, to distance the university from political
control resulted in the separation of university and state relations, and the adoption of a
university appointed Board of Governors.200 Flavelle visited numerous universities in the United
States to study their internal operating structures and as one fellow commissioner reported, “I
was amazed at [his] grasp of University affairs”.201 During this period, Flavelle also chaired a
fundraising campaign, to upgrade the Toronto General Hospital, which resulted in its relocation,
in 1913, to a modern building beside the medical faculty of U of T.202 Flavelle strongly
supported the Johns Hopkins model of medicine and the symbiotic union between its medical
school and teaching hospital.203 This extensive leadership in the public sector allowed him to
appreciate the governance needs of WCUU and the health care vision of the missionaries.
Chongqing Posting
Charlie assumed he would be returning to Chengdu, as the Board of Governors of WCUU, in
July 1920, had indicated “to Dr. Service our appreciation of fine work that he has done in the
interest of the Medical and Dental College and express the hope that he will soon be back at
Chengtu to continue his service there in forwarding this work”.204 However, with limited
personnel, the CMM needed to temporarily post Charlie to Chongqing, to cover the furlough of
Dr. W.J. Sheridan. Charlie arrived in Sichuan without his family, in November 1920, and he was
utoronto.ca/members/sir-joseph-flavelle/. 197 Michael Bliss, The Making of Modern Medicine: Turning Points in the Treatment of Disease, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), 70; Michael Bliss, “Flavelle, Sir Joseph Wesley”, Dictionary of Canadian Biography. 198 United Church of Canada Archives, General Council Archives Guide to Holdings Related to West China Medical Missions (1800-1958), 31, 43, 137, http://www.united-church.ca/sites/default/files/handbook_research-guide-west-china.pdf. 199 Sir Joseph Flavelle to Dr. Anderson, 30 November 1928, Board of Governors of the West China Union University, 493, http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-286-4493.pdf. 200 Michael Bliss, “Flavelle, Sir Joseph Wesley”, Dictionary of Canadian Biography. 201 Reverend Bruce Macdonald in Martin L. Friedland, The University of Toronto: A History, 2nd ed., (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013), 200. 202 Bliss, The Making of Modern Medicine, 68-70; David Olive, “The way to remember Sir Joseph Flavelle”, The Star, 21 December 2014. 203 Ibid. 204 “Board of Governor Minutes”, West China Union University, (2 July 1920, #400), http://divinity-adhoc.library. yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-272-4326.pdf.
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assigned to the position of superintendent of the Canadian Methodist Hospital also known as
Renji Hospital. During this period, he boarded with various missionary families as his household
and personal belongings, including his treasured books and violin, remained in Chengdu.
One of Charlie’s greatest regrets was the fact he did not have access to his personal library.
Charlie loved to read, and on his return trip from his regular furloughs, he always packed as
many books and journals as he could into his luggage. One time, when a shipwreck in the
Yangtze gorges destroyed his possessions, his only lament was the fact that “with the spoiling of
his worldly goods he had lost many of his most valuable books”.205 Another time, when his
house was robbed in Chengdu, he was extremely relieved that the thieves showed no interest in
what he thought was his most prized possession. Charlie viewed reading as a necessary vehicle
to keep his medical knowledge current and to ensure his ideas continued to evolve outside of the
medical profession. He felt so strongly about this issue that he recommended in 1912, as part of
his overall vision for the medical work in Sichuan, a “provision whereby every medical worker
shall have at least a brief vacation every year and more time for reading and study”.206
The decision for Robina to remain in Toronto was a typical pattern for mission family life,
especially when the children reached high school and university. Another typical pattern was for
parents serving overseas to leave their children with relatives or with other missionary families in
Canada. This was the case for the Kilborn family, and during this current period when Robina
resided in Toronto, the children of Dr. Retta Kilborn lived with the Service family while their
mother was working in Chongqing.207 In the fall of 1922, a decision was taken for Robina and
William, to return to Sichuan and the three girls, being of high school and university age,
remained in Toronto with Robina’s sister.208 Charlie was thrilled to have Robina and William
with him in Chongqing. His home life was returning to normal and Robina, who had been his
health care partner throughout the years, was once again providing nursing services in Sichuan.
Robina was also given additional responsibilities by the CMM, and she was appointed to teach at
the Canadian School where William was an elementary student.209
Charlie and Robina found living in the port city of Chongqing very different from life in
Chengdu. Located on the Yangtze River, Chongqing was the commercial center for western
China, and compared with the other mission stations, it was a more diversified cultural “contact
zone”, due to the growing presence of western businessmen and employees of the foreign
consulates.210 Within this increasingly tense geopolitical landscape, some missionaries began to
cast an increasingly critical eye on the excessive actions of the commercial traders and
diplomats.211 As Charlie’s son, William, would later elucidate: “it was not our parents’ fault that
they took part in the missionary movement during a period of Western imperial expansion…thus
205 Beaton, Great Living, 24. 206 Ibid. 207 C.W. Service to Family, (original letter), 21 September 1920; 9 September 1921; 23 October 1921; 25 April 1922. 208 Robina’s sister was Jennie (Morgan) Corrigan. In September 1920, her daughter Beatrice married Joseph Harris of Harris Abattoir which along with the William Davies Company, headed by Flavelle, merged to form Canada Packers known today as Maple Leaf Foods. 209 Robina Service to Family, (original letter), 11 March 1923; William Service to Family, (original letter), 6 May 1923. 210 Marie Louise Pratt in John D. Meehan, Chasing the Dragon in Shanghai: Canada’s Early Relations with China, 1858-1952, 8. 211 Semple, The Lord’s Domain, 307.
33
modern Missions in China became established in relation to unequal treaties, extraterritorial
rights, treaty ports, concessions, wars and indemnities”.212 A strong anti-foreign, anti-Christian
sentiment was galvanizing the youth who were reacting to the asymmetrical structure of the
treaty port which favoured foreign commercial interests.213 Dr. J.L. Stewart, the vice-president
of WCUU, provided this perspective.
It is necessary for one to live in China…in order to appreciate that foreign nations are
partly responsible for the present anti-foreign feeling. Young China has travelled abroad,
and in doing so has gained an education in the foreign method of doing business, and he,
therefore, feels that the foreign nations are taking advantage of China under the present
treaty.214
As Charlie internalized the Chongqing dynamic, he began to question his western values, and the
reframing of his life story was a natural progression for missionaries, after spending years in
China, learning the language and interacting with Chinese society.215 Charlie shared his
transitioning thoughts in a letter to the church community in Canada.216 Although he “hoped that
a better feeling towards foreigners may soon appear”, Charlie acknowledged that “the Chinese
have many reasons for disliking foreigners though some of their grievances arise from a
misunderstanding of us and our motives. Nevertheless, foreigners, even most missionaries, are
to be blamed for the attitude of superiority which most of us unconsciously assume”.217 It was
his wish that “all this unpleasantness may be the school to teach foreigners and Chinese alike to
understand and respect each other”.218 For Charlie, the best means to build respect was to live a
life of humble service towards his neighbours and as a medical missionary, this meant providing
services to his Chinese patients, thereby demonstrating his “all-round interest in mankind”.219
To provide some context to Charlie’s musings, Canadian missionaries had a unique perspective
from their British and American colleagues.220 Their Canadian mindset reflected both their
current colonial status within the British Empire and their North American vulnerability to
manifest destiny advocates promoting the assimilation of Canada. In 1909, during a visit to
China, the then Minister of Labour William Lyon Mackenzie King, was approached by an
212 C.W.M. Service, “An Address at the Sixtieth Anniversary Reunion, June 22, 1969”, Canadian School in West China, 49. 213 Beaton, Great Living, 25-26. 214 The Globe, “Happenings in China Explained to ‘Lions’ by 25 Year Resident”, April 15, 1927, 11. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail. 215 Paul Cohen in Michelle Renshaw, Accommodating the Chinese: The American Hospital in China, 1880-1920, 2nd ed., (London & New York: Routledge Press, 2016), 8. 216 Julie Beck, “Life’s Stories: How you arrange the plot points of your life into a narrative can shape who you are - and is a fundamental part of being human”, The Atlantic, 10 August 2015, https://www.theatlantic.com/health/ archive/2015/08/life-stories-narrative-psychology-redemption-mental-health/400796/. 217 C.W. Service in Beaton, Great Living, 26. 218 Ibid., 11. 219 Charles W. Service, “Public Health in China”, The Canadian Journal of Medicine and Surgery, 374. 220 Laura Madokora, “Review by Laura Madokora, Columbia University, Chasing the Dragon in Shanghai: Canada’s Early Relations with China 1858-1952”, H-Diplo Roundtable Review, Vol. 14, No. 38, 2013, 11; Meehan, Chasing the Dragon in Shanghai: Canada’s Early Relations with China, 1858-1952, 11.
34
American diplomat about the possibility of his country being assimilated by the United States,
and King’s response was blunt.
I believe that Canada is losing her opportunity, and that the U.S. is getting far in the lead
in many ways…I am beginning to see the essential need of Canada shaping her policy
from a national view-point…Let her cease to think in colonial terms and to act in any
way as with colonial status. Let her become a nation or other nations will rob her of this
right.221
These words would foreshadow the growing nationalism during the interwar years when King
was the prime minister of Canada. Some historians have hypothesized that Canadian
missionaries were more receptive, to growing Chinese nationalism in the 1920s, because this was
a period when Canadians were also forging their own national identity and independence.222
Although they were still dependant on the British gun boats for protection, Canadian
missionaries were also important actors in challenging traditional cultural perceptions.
“Influenced by those they served, many championed Chinese nationalism”, historian John D.
Meehan claims, “by calling for racial equality, immigration reform, and an end to
extraterritoriality”.223 As Charlie articulated in a speech delivered to a Canadian audience in
1919, “there is what is known as extra territoriality. That is an ignominious thing”.224 Others,
like Rowell, who at the time was the vice-chair of the Board of Governors of WCUU, believed it
was “the duty of the church to wage war against racial prejudices” and the modern missionary
movement with ‘its hospitals for the care and treatment of the sick, with its schools for the
education of the children…and with a Spirit of unselfish altruism…[has] counterbalanced the
evil effects of the contact of other phases of our Western civilization”.225
Although Charlie recognized the legitimate basis for the grievances against foreigners, he also
reflected that at times Canadian motives were misunderstood. In a paper delivered at the West
China Missionary Conference in 1908, Charlie suggested that one approach to reduce “suspicion
of our motives” would be to implement a payment system for medical services where those
patients who can pay a medical fee should contribute according to their means.226
Being unable to view our presence here in China, and our expenditure of so much time,
money, and effort, from the Christian point of view, many of them cannot but suspect
ulterior motives…No doubt not a few think that we have some political mission, that we
are connected in some way with our foreign governments, either serving them as
emissaries, or drawing pay from them for some mysterious reason. Whereas the payment
of a fee will do much to allay such suspicions, and will tend to an enlightened
understanding of the real status of the foreign missionary, whether he be doctor, preacher,
221 William Lyon Mackenzie King in Meehan, Chasing the Dragon in Shanghai: Canada’s Early Relations with China, 1858-1952, 29. 222 Ibid. 223 Ibid., 181. 224 C. W. Service, “Some of China’s Problems, Address to the Empire Club of Canada”, 30 October 1919, 369-384. 225 Hon. N.W. Rowell, “The British Empire and world peace; Being the Burwash Memorial Lectures, delivered in Convocation Hall, University of Toronto, November, 1921”, 211, 262. 226 C. W. Service, “Self Support”, in West China Missionary Conference, 245.
35
teacher, or other. I believe such a procedure favorably affects every arm of missionary
enterprise.227
Another contributing factor was the tendency to view the motives of the multinational
missionaries through a singular lens even though conservative theology focused on religious
conversion, and the liberal theology of the Canadian medical missionaries was interested in
improving the health care situation in Sichuan. Additionally, Canadian missiological values
were sometimes undelineated from the more recognizable motives of the influential global
powers. Canada was coming of age as a nation, and due to the larger British and American
commercial presence, Canada was often a forgotten country. This invisibility extended to
Canadian missionaries who were sometimes linked to the larger American and British missions,
and their British connection was reinforced by the fact they carried British passports.228 As more
Canadian historiography focuses on soft diplomacy and the role of non-state actors in
establishing the initial people-to-people links between Canada and China, there should be a
greater recognition that “China’s history with missionaries forms modern Canada relations” as
reported in a 2017 article in The Globe and Mail.229
Return to WCUU
Charlie and Robina welcomed their appointment to Chengdu, in the summer of 1923, as they
preferred the quieter provincial capital with its university campus. The Senate of WCUU had
made an official request for “the return of all those who hitherto have been associated with the
University and we would mention in particular the desirability and urgency of appointing Dr.
C.W. Service who has been so intimately associated with the publicity work for the Medical
School in the homeland”.230 Dr. Beech had experienced first-hand Charlie’s fundraising
campaign for the future Medical-Dental College.
I remember very well going to Canada on one occasion some years ago and Dr. Service
just dragged me around the city of Toronto…He wanted me to see this doctor and that
doctor, and what was it all about. Why, he wanted to get them interested in the
University here. He wanted to get the whole of the medical profession in Canada
interested in the University. He wanted men to give money for it and he worked
tirelessly for it all through his vacation.231
It was a challenge for WCUU to properly staff its faculty positions and with a growing student
enrolment; they were often faced with the situation where “the number of our teaching staff has
227 Ibid. 228 Austin, Saving China, 85-86. 229 Nathan Vanderklippe, “China’s history with missionaries forms modern Canadian relations”, The Globe and Mail, (14 April 2017), http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=MjUyMzE5NjE%3D. 230 “Senate Minutes - Report of the West China Union University to the Participating Missions”, West China Union University, (6 January 1921, #116411A), http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_ University/RG011-275-4362.pdf. 231 Dr. J. Beech, Address given at “A Friend and Fellow Missionary Laid to Rest”, Funeral Service for Dr. Charles Winfield Service, March 13, 1930, Si Shen Si Church, Chengdu, West China.
36
not kept pace with our student body”.232 Dr. E.C. Wilford, a medical doctor and educator at the
Medical Dental College provided this perspective:
In carrying on our Medical School we have our discouragements, the principle being lack
of men and money. On the other hand, we have much to keep us optimistic. We have an
unrivalled opportunity here, with plenty of room for expansion as ours is the only
Mission College among 1,000,000 people. Our staff, though insufficient in number, is
unexcelled in the spirit of harmony and cooperation, and the willingness to shoulder
heavy burdens. It is a great pleasure to be permitted to work with this splendid group of
men and women.233
The CMM was taking a leading role in medical education with their decision to build a Medical-
Dental College, and compared to the other missions, they were also supplying more professors to
teach at WCUU and to oversee clinical training at their hospitals. Within the CMM, there
continued to be an annual debate about the prioritization of funding between medical and dental
education in Chengdu and the clinical needs of the hospitals and dispensaries located throughout
Sichuan. At Mission Council meetings, when mission appointments were being allocated,
Charlie was known to keep urging his colleagues to “appoint more teachers to teach at the
University”, and he frequently wrote letters to the Home Board requesting additional resources
for the Medical-Dental College.234 Throughout all these funding debates, it was Endicott’s
assessment that “in recent years no one in West China was more keen and more devoted than he
to build up a really worthwhile medical and dental school there…[and] he was always, or nearly
always, able to carry the majority of the missionaries with him as he pressed forward”.235
Another significant challenge for the staff was the ongoing shortage of cadavers to teach
anatomy to medical students. Although the government had passed a law in 1913 to legalize
dissection, the decree required the consent of the patient’s relatives, and there continued to be
strong cultural resistance to the examination of the body after death.236 The university was
therefore forced to look for alternative sources, and WCUU made arrangements with local
authorities to receive the cadavers of brigands who were being publicly beheaded for their
crimes. One of the professors wrote a letter to the governor of Sichuan, General Yang Sen, and
suggested an alternative method of capital punishment. This proposed technique would protect
the complex nervous system of the brain stem which was important for teaching crucial life
functions in anatomy class.237 The governor responded to their proposal and humorously
suggested that “since you are not satisfied with my system, I will send the next group of brigands
out to you at the University and you dispose of them according to your own method”.238 This
was not the anticipated response and “no member of the staff enjoyed the way the humour had
been turned on them more than Dr. Service”.239 Charlie had a keen sense of humour, and he was
232 “Senate Minutes”, West China Union University, (6 January 1921, #116411A). 233 E.C. Wilford, “West China Union University: Faculty of Medicine”, China Medical Journal, 762. 234 Sparling, Address for Dr. Charles Winfield Service. 235 Endicott, Memorial Service for Dr. C.W. Service. 236 Guangqui Xu, American Doctors in Canton: Modernization in China, 1835-1935, (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2011), 66-67. 237 Beaton, Great Living, 19-20. 238 General Yang Sen in Beaton, Great Living, 20. 239 Beaton, Great Living, 20.
37
pleased when his knowledge of the Chinese language had progressed to the point where he was
able to share his numerous jokes and puns in both English and Chinese. “His lectures and often
the suspense of the operating-room were enlivened by frequent spontaneous bursts of humour
that greatly delighted the students”.240
Canadian Methodist Hospital 1923-1927
During the mid 1920’s, the CMM was expanding its work in clinical medicine, and the
Methodist Church of Canada appointed its largest number of medical missionaries, since its
founding. This mission was “the largest, single mission field operated by a single church in the
world”.241 The statistics for 1923 illustrated the emphasis placed by the CMM on medical work
compared to the other seven missionary societies. The CMM controlled 10 of the 24 hospitals,
performed 12,000 of the 14,471 operations, and tended to over half of the dispensary patients.242
By 1925, there were more than 30 doctors supporting a network of 32 hospitals and dispensaries
throughout Sichuan.243 With respect to Chengdu, the headquarters of the CMM mission, Charlie
concluded that
the Chengtu Men’s Hospital in 1924 probably witnessed the best year in its history, at
least as far as amount of work is concerned. And because of a larger staff than ever
before it is also probably true that the quality of work done was better than heretofore.
Certainly it is true that there was a greater division of work and that along specialized
lines. Our plant and equipment have also improved immensely during recent years so
that now we feel not only a great satisfaction in doing our work but we also feel our
hospital is taking its place among the best in China.244
In 1924, Charlie was asked to prepare an article about his work for the annual report of the
CMM. Although he acknowledged that “when working in a large teaching hospital with nurses
and other doctors, it is a very difficult task to write a report of one’s own work, for it is so
intimately linked up with the work of the others”, his report provided a sketch of a year in the life
of a medical doctor living in Chengdu.245
The Canadian Methodist Hospital was a teaching hospital, and during the nine months of clinical
training, this was when Charlie felt “our staff feels the pressure of hard work” for there are “three
classes of nurses-in-training…two classes of senior medical students taking clinical work” and
“the teaching of these classes entails a vast amount of preparations as the teaching is chiefly done
in the Chinese language”.246 Charlie shared his surgical practice and teaching responsibilities
with Dr. E.C. Wilford. He also undertook the didactic teaching in obstetrics and gynecology and
he “shared the clinical work in these subjects with Dr. Ada Speers of our W.M.S. Hospital”
where he “also had the pleasure of assisting somewhat in the surgical side of its work”.247
240 Ibid. 241 Austin, Saving China, 48. 242 Dr. Charles W. Service, “The Conference and Medical Work”, The West China Missionary News, 1924, 23. 243 Semple, The Lord’s Domain, 331. 244 Dr. C. W. Service, in Canadian Methodist Mission West China Reports of Work for the Year 1924, 94, 78.096C, Box 16, The United Church of Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 245 Ibid., 94. 246 Ibid., 94-95. 247 Ibid., 95.
38
Obstetrics and gynecology were two of the subjects Charlie studied, in 1919, during his
postgraduate fellowship at Johns Hopkins University.
Figure 15: Medical Faculty of West China Union University, October 1923
Far right first row: Dr. John Thompson; far right third row: Dr. Charles Service
(Source: The United Church of Canada Archives, Toronto. 1999.001P/3312N.
Medical Faculty of W.C.U.U., Oct. 1923. Francie Service)
In his report, Charlie would refer to his other commitments as the etceteras of a doctor’s life and
these included:
• delivering health lectures to the general public
• working with the Y.M.C.A. on city-wide campaigns focused on the welfare of babies,
opium addiction, and home hygiene
• writing and distributing public health literature on preventable diseases such as malaria,
cholera and tuberculosis
• writing a book entitled A System of Case Taking for his senior medical students to
standardize the recording of each patient’s history and examination results
• working with other health care professionals to conduct physical exams of all the students
and missionary families including the promotion of preventative medicine
• acting as the medical editor of The West China Missionary News248
The message that “prevention is better than a cure” was strongly promoted within their own
schools and the general public because it “brings to the attention of the people the fact that we
are sincerely interested in the problem of prevention as well as the problem of cure”.249 The
medical community estimated that two-thirds of all deaths in China were the result of plague
248 Dr. C. W. Service, in Canadian Methodist Mission West China Reports of Work for the Year 1924, 94-96; “Senate Minutes”, West China Union University, (7 October 1926, #1976), http://divinityadhoc.library.yale.edu/ UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-275-4363.pdf. 249 Dr. C. W. Service, in Canadian Methodist Mission West China Reports of Work for the Year 1924, 96.
39
epidemics and other preventable diseases.250 In an article written for the Canadian Journal for
Medicine and Surgery, Charlie reasoned that
preventable diseases are social problems beyond the control of the individual. This
means that the remedy is not alone the treatment of the patient by the individual doctor,
but rather the broad treatment of the whole social organism by all the constructive forces
available. Therefore public health education is the keystone. Without it social conditions
cannot be improved, nor can many of the communicable diseases ultimately be stamped
out. The rate at which diseases can be wiped out is determined by the amount of
regulation which the people will observe. There has to be a specific amount of
legislation. But restriction of personal liberty must be understood and supported by the
public. It therefore becomes imperative to educate and inform on the modern discoveries
regarding disease and to inculcate the idea of the intrinsic as well as the economic value
of life.251
In 1929, the promotion of public health and preventative medicine was significantly advanced
with the appointment of a missionary doctor to this position.252
This was also a period when medical personnel were planning a comprehensive policy for the
expansion of medical education at WCUU. The construction of the new Medical-Dental College
was scheduled to start in 1925, and the doctors were strongly advocating that an
interdenominational “General Clinical Hospital near the University and easily accessible to the
Medical School” should be part of the plans in order to accommodate the anticipated increase of
medical and dental students at WCUU.253 The current inefficient situation where the students
must undergo their clinical training at separate hospitals, located far from the university, resulted
in a substantial amount of time being lost for travel, and often the senior students were forced to
live off campus. Charlie was a member of the Senate Committee tasked to “outline a detailed
statement of our ideals for a future medical policy for Chengtu and to suggest a line of procedure
for the immediate future”.254 The Committee report was submitted to the Senate in April 1924,
and their recommendations for a centralized medical centre were approved. Specifically, the
Senate agreed “that we look forward to the development of a hospital and dispensary for the
clinical instruction of the medical students within easy access of the Medical School at the Union
University”.255 This large training hospital would eventually be built and was the precursor to
the present West China Hospital at Sichuan University.
Furlough: Postdoctoral Training
In 1927, due to political unrest against foreign interests, all foreigners including missionaries
were encouraged to evacuate to Shanghai. The furlough of the Service Family was overdue and,
as reported in The Globe, Charlie had “remained on duty a year longer than usual, in order to
250 Charles W. Service, “Public Health in China”, The Canadian Journal of Medicine and Surgery, 371. 251 Ibid., 372. 252 C.W. Service, “One of China’s Great Problems”, Dominion Dental Journal, Vol. 31, No. 2, (1919), 42. 253 “Senate Minutes”, West China Union University, (3 April 1924, #1689), http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/ UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-275-4363.pdf. 254 Ibid., #1689. 255 Ibid., #1690.
40
prevent undermanning of the teaching staff in the Medical Faculty at Chengtu”.256 Robina and
William returned to Toronto, while Charlie spent a term at the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine, before travelling to Canada. This current placement in London, at this
globally renowned public health research institution, was illustrative of the ongoing commitment
of WCUU to forge multi-institutional collaboration with some of the leading global universities.
During this furlough, Charlie once again attended Johns Hopkins University and networked with
the alma mater of many of the West China medical missionaries, the University of Toronto.257
Since he was based primarily in Toronto for his two-year furlough, Charlie spent a considerable
amount of time with the staff at the Toronto General Hospital where the breadth of his clinical
exposure covered technical skills in general surgery. This included thoracic surgery with two of
the pioneers in this field, Drs. Norman Shenstone and Robert Janes.258 The late 1920’s was an
exciting period to engage in this surgical field, as Canada was quickly becoming a global leader,
in advancing thoracic surgical procedures. In May 1929, Shenstone and Janes successfully
performed a one-stage lung lobotomy, utilizing their invention known as the Shenstone-Janes
lung tourniquet, on a patient suffering from bronchiectasis.259 This technique would
revolutionize lung resection surgery and after publishing their findings in 1932, “within a few
months, their development became knowledge in every major chest clinic in the world”.260
It is interesting to note that in 1928 Dr. Norman Bethune, a medical graduate from U of T, was
accepted as a thoracic surgical fellow at McGill University, and he trained under Dr. Edward
Archibald at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal.261 Archibald was world-renowned for his
contributions to thoracic surgery, in particular extrapleural thoracoplasty, and during his eight-
year tenure in Montreal, Bethune would also advance thoracic surgery with the invention of a
number of surgical instruments including the rib shears.262 In subsequent years, the impact of
Bethune would extend beyond the borders of Canada, and his world-wide reach would include
his time in China, from 1938-1939, where he joined the 8th Route Army of the communist forces
during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Bethune would later be honoured for designing a mobile
operating theatre, to tend to wounded soldiers on the front lines, while also providing medical
care to rural villagers and training health care personnel.263
256 The Globe, “Reassuring Tone in Cable Reports from Mission Field”, October 12, 1926, 13. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail. 257 “History: The Building”, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/Aboutus /introducing/history/building. 258 “Brief History of Thoracic Surgery in Toronto”, University of Toronto, Department of Surgery, http://thoracic surgery.utoronto.ca/about/history.htm. 259 Norman S. Shenstone and Robert M. Janes, “Experiences in Pulmonary Lobectomy”, The Canadian Medical Association Journal, Vol. 27, No. 2, (1932), 138, 142. 260 Ken W. MacTaggart, The Globe, “Toronto Surgeons’ Find Helped King Recover”, December 12, 1951, 4. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail. 261 Shenwen Li, “Bethune, Henry Norman”, Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. 16, University of Toronto/ Université Laval, 2011, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/bethune_henry_norman_16E.html. 262 Jean Deslauriers, F. Griffith Pearson and Bill Nelems, “Evolution of thoracic surgery in Canada”, Canadian Respiratory Journal, Vol. 22, No. 2, (2015), e8-e14; Shenwen Li, “Bethune, Henry Norman”, Dictionary of Canadian Biography. 263 Shenwen Li, “Bethune, Henry Norman”, Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
41
Charlie returned to Chengdu, in the fall of 1929, with new medical textbooks and a thousand
pages of clinical and lecture notes which he referred to as “invaluable”, as they have “loaded me
up with lots of new ideas for working and for teaching”.264 The opportunity to discuss his most
challenging cases with medical educators, and his clinical exposure to current surgical
procedures and public health interventions, enabled Charlie to confidently return to China
believing that “everything is right up to date”.265 A few months after his return to Chengdu, one
of the medical professors at U of T received a letter from Charlie, and the professor, during a
lecture, passed on the information that Charlie had successfully performed, at the Canadian
Methodist Hospital, the first thoracic operation of its kind in China.266 Charlie continued to
perform thoracic operations, and he would often mention the outcome of these surgeries in his
letters. During this period, Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) was establishing a thoracic
medical unit based on the Johns Hopkins health care delivery model.267 This diffusion of
cutting-edge surgical techniques, to improve patient outcomes in China, was the product of the
strong transnational relationships evolving between PUMC and Johns Hopkins University, and
WCUU and the University of Toronto. As a medical professor, Charlie took great pride in
knowing that even though his students were studying in an isolated region of China, separated by
distance and the natural barriers of treacherous river gorges and mountains, they were exposed to
the same thoracic surgical innovations as their fellow students sitting in a lecture hall in Toronto,
Baltimore or Beijing.
The Young People’s Forward Movement
One of Charlie’s greatest joys was teaching and in November 1929, a decade after his cross-
Canada tour to raise funds from Canadian nurses, dentists and doctors, he had the opportunity to
be a professor at the newly opened Medical-Dental College. Charlie recognized, while he was
an undergraduate student at Victoria College, the importance of fundraising to the overall
success of the missionary enterprise. The 1890s was a critical period because even though the
church was encouraged that their overseas work was inspiring recent university graduates to
choose a missionary career, the institution lacked the financial resources to expand their overseas
operations. In response to this institutional need, Frederick Stephenson proposed that a new
student organization be formed, and in 1895, Charlie along with Dr. Frederick Stephenson and
Rev. Herman Warren founded the Young People’s Forward Movement (YPFM) to engage
university students, and eventually the young people of the church, in fundraising activities in
support of missions.268
This movement began with a small committee at Victoria College, developed into an official
department of the Methodist Church of Canada and, as Charlie explained, later expanded
264 C.W. Service to Family (original letter), 6 October 1929. 265 C. W. Service to Family (original letter), 22 December 1929; 9 February 1930. 266 Rev. R.O. Jolliffe, “Dr. C.W. Service Memorial Service”, (Trinity United Church, Toronto: 23 March 1930). 267 Lan Xichun, Gu Kaishi and Wu Yingkai, “History and Present Status of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery in China” in International Practice in Cardiothoracic Surgery, eds. Wu Yingkai and Richard M. Peters, (Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1986), 23. 268 C.W. Service, “The Origin of the Young People’s Forward Movement for Missions”, Acta Victoriana, Vol. 25, No. 8, (1902), http://library.vicu.utoronto.ca/exhibitions/vic_in_china/sections/vics_commitment_to_west_china_ missions/the_young_peoples_forward_movement_for_missions_pray_study_give.html.
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beyond our own denominational bounds. While Canadian Methodism has the honour of
having inaugurated and first fully organized it, and has demonstrated its great
possibilities, many other Churches have adopted the principle and the plan, adopting both
to denominational requirements. Several denominations in Canada, several in Great
Britain, and at least thirteen in the United States, have now a vigorous Young People’s
Forward Movement for Missions.269
Figure 16: Founding members of the Young People’s Forward Movement
Left to right: Rev. H.E. Warren, Dr. F.C. Stephenson, Dr. C.W. Service
(Source: Service Family)
Stephenson would dedicate his life to this organization, and as a result of its fundraising
achievements, he would later reflect that “the continued success and expansion of our West
China Mission and the growth of the Young People’s Forward Movement have been
concurrent”.270 From 1897-1925, the church raised over $3 million through the YPFM, and each
decade resulted in a substantial increase in revenue: $482,316 was raised from 1897-1906, this
increased to $1,031,322 from 1907-1916, and the period from 1917-1925 saw an additional
increase to an amount of $1,594,489.271 This substantial fundraising base was an important
revenue source to support individual missionaries, as well as the building fund for the Canadian
Methodist Hospital in Chengdu, and other hospitals and schools throughout Sichuan.272
The Young People’s Forward Movement was also an important avenue for recruiting volunteers
especially with its strong connection to Victoria College. At a large inter-denominational
meeting in the summer of 1903, in the mountain town of Guling located in the southeast
province of Jiangxi, there was a proposal to double the number of missionaries serving in China
within three years. With respect to the West China Mission, the number of missionaries
269 Ibid. 270 F.C. Stephenson, “Forward”, Our West China Mission, 13-14. 271 F.C. Stephenson, “The Thirtieth Annual Report of the Young People’s Forward Movement for Missions”, The 101st Annual Report of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, Canada 1924-1925, 83. To put this fundraising in perspective, the inflation calculator suggests that 3 million Canadian dollars from 1925 is equivalent to 42 million inflation adjusted Canadian dollars in 2018. 272 F.C. Stephenson, Our West China Mission, 14; Bond, Our Share in China, 62; Austin, Saving China, 97; Semple, The Lord’s Domain, 328.
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currently stood at 12 families appointed by the General Board of the Methodist Church and eight
women appointed by the Women’s Missionary Society (WMS).273 After the meeting, Charlie
wrote a letter to the Methodist Church of Canada outlining the proposal to double the number of
missionaries. His message for potential recruits was very direct: “here is an invitation, an
opportunity, a challenge, to invest life to great advantage”.274 At the eighth annual Mission
Conference of Victoria College, held in January 1904, Stephenson who was the secretary of the
YPFM conducted a roundtable discussion, and the topic discussed was “Doubling the Missionary
force of the Methodist Church within ten years”.275 Charlie’s letter was read to the conference
participants and Hart, although now retired as superintendent of the CMM, was one of the
speakers who encouraged university graduates to consider working in Sichuan.276
Through these personal appeals and the strong leadership from the Student Volunteer Movement,
the personnel assigned to the CMM increased within five years, from 12 to 40 families and from
eight to 30 single women.277 Among these recruits was Rev. Edward Wallace who was
appointed general secretary of the West China Christian Educational Union, and he would later
be designated chancellor of Victoria College of the University of Toronto. Years later, members
of the church community, including Chancellor Wallace and Dr. Beaton, would suggest that
there was a direct correlation between “that vision which Charlie Service had put before us” and
the significant increase in the number of new recruits sent to the mission field.278
The missionary enterprise continued to expand through the collaborative efforts of so many
different groups from the YPFM supporting individual missionaries to Sunday school children
buying bricks for hospitals to the health care professionals raising funds for the Medical-Dental
College, and finally to the missionaries working with their Chinese colleagues and international
partners to build the hospitals and schools. Charlie and Robina were part of this strong
community spirit striving to establish an indigenous health care system in Sichuan, and recent
indicators suggested that this was an achievable outcome. Since the 1911 evacuation when the
hospitals were forced to close, there was progress in strengthening the capacity of health care and
in 1929, Charlie and the other medical missionaries returned to hospitals that had remained open
under the capable leadership of the recent Chinese WCUU graduates.279
Return to Chengdu
At the end of their furlough in 1929, it was decided that Robina would continue to live in
Toronto while William attended high school. Their daughters were already settled into their
careers and both Winnifred and Frances chose careers in teaching, and Margaret would follow
273 Beaton, Great Living, 10-11. 274 Ibid. 275 The Globe, “The Fields are White: Harvesters are needed in Methodist Missions. Annual Conference at Victoria University Discusses Work Done and Outlook for the Future”, January 18, 1904, 7. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail. 276 Ibid. 277 C.W. Service in Beaton, Great Living, 11. 278 Chancellor E.W. Wallace, “Dr. C.W. Service Memorial Service”, (Trinity United Church, Toronto: 23 March 1930); Beaton, Great Living, 11-12. 279 Leslie Kilborn, “The Medical Services of the Canadian Mission in Szechwan”, The West China Missionary News, 11.
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her mother into the nursing profession. Since Charlie had recently undergone two serious
operations in Toronto, he was encouraged to postpone his trip but Charlie was not prepared “to
retire from the service he loved”, and according to his colleague Dr. T.H. Williams, “seeing the
need so great he could not remain away even at the advice of physicians and wishes of
friends”.280 Charlie was returning “to his work in Chengtu…in connection with the Hospital and
Medical College” and Beech interpreted his return to the field as281
an overwhelming compassion to relieve the suffering people who were sick here in China
and to teach the students that they might go on with that work of alleviating the suffering
of mankind. It was for that reason that he left his family and came here - a sick man
himself - to bring others to health.282
When Charlie returned to Sichuan, he was appreciative of a donation from Sir Joseph Flavelle of
$10,000 to restock the medical supplies and equipment in the hospitals. Flavelle’s involvement
with the Toronto General Hospital made him very cognizant of the operating needs of a hospital
and while the medical missionaries were in Toronto, there was an opportunity to engage with the
chair of the Board of Governors. In an October 1929 cable to General Secretary Endicott,
Flavelle gave these specific instructions for his donation:
You will be good enough to have a clear understanding that this is an extra amount over
the normal appropriation which would be made for improvements and betterments in
hospital equipment. The purpose of the subscription is not to take the place of the
amounts which would be used from current resources, but as an extra, to help to take up
the slack which has occurred over these disturbed, as well as preceding years.283
As Charlie was the only surgeon working in Chengdu, he found this to be a “very heavy
responsibility for so many decisions has to be made alone”.284 This shortage of surgical
missionaries was occasionally raised in his letters where he would suggest the names of potential
recruits or he would express that “I only wish my good friends Shenstone or Janes were here to
advise and help” in a troubling thoracic case.285 Even though his current situation was
challenging, Charlie never wavered from his deep respect for the medical profession and the
belief that “life goes merrily on, so to speak, with its ups and downs, its lights and shadows; and
the life of the doctor and the nurse it is not an easy road to be sure but oh, the many
compensations there are in saved lives, and repaired bodies. It is worth it all, is it not?”286
280 T.H. Williams, “Dr. Charles Winfield Service”, The West China Missionary News, (1930), 39, http://images.library. yale.edu/divinitycontent/dayrep/9866641_1930_032-004_eng.pdf. 281 The Globe, “Departing Workers Honored by Church: Dr. Charles and Mrs. Service Guests of Trinity United Congregation”, June 20, 1929, 15. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail. 282 Beech, Address for Dr. Charles Winfield Service. 283 Sir Joseph Flavelle to Dr. Endicott (cable), 24 October 1929, Board of Governors of the West China Union University, 518, http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/ RG011-286-4493.pdf. 284 C.W. Service to Family (original letter), 25 January 1930. 285 C.W. Service, “Some Letters of Dr. C.W. Service”, 2 March 1930, The West China Missionary News, June 1931, 15, http://divdl.library.yale.edu/divinitycontent/dayrep/9866641_1931_033-006_eng.pdf. 286 Ibid., 17.
45
Charlie was continually sharing stories about the rewarding work of a medical missionary with
potential employees. It was Endicott’s opinion that Charlie had “spoken to more prospective
missionary doctors and nurses than any other of our missionaries who have been serving the
church in West China” and through this ongoing engagement “he was instrumental in sending
many missionaries to the foreign field”.287 During this current period, it was becoming
increasingly more difficult to recruit personnel, and Charlie began to contemplate alternative
strategies, to fill the medical gaps, especially at a time when the work of the West China Mission
was ‘being tragically restricted for want of finances”.288 One idea Charlie was musing about was
to offer doctors the opportunity to engage in short-term medical assignments of one year. These
would be volunteer positions with the medical personnel agreeing to take a one-year leave of
absence from their medical practice.
Impact of the New Medical Graduates
Charlie expressed some apprehension about his return to Sichuan in 1929, and the reception he
would receive as a foreigner working in Chengdu, due to the recent anti-foreign disturbances by
nationalist forces against the extraterritoriality rights of foreign missions. In an August 1929
report to the Board of Governors, Beech observed that although “West China was not in the main
path of these forces, they have touched us in spots with destructive force” and the returning
missionaries would have been advised of the potential for cross-cultural discord on the WCUU
campus.289 However, once Charlie arrived his apprehension soon dissipated, and he was very
appreciative that the “people, students and Chinese staff in the university all seem very friendly
and willing to co-operate and the eagerness and efficiency of several of our Chinese doctors
working with us are splendid and marks a new era in our work”.290 The West China Mission had
to adjust to this new era, as they began to integrate these recent medical graduates, and one area
that required an immediate missiological shift was the salary levels of the Chinese doctors. In
recognition of the fact these recent graduates “are very well trained…and are invaluable” to the
health care system, Charlie argued that the salaries of the Chinese doctors, especially those with
additional training, should be increased to reflect their position as valued colleagues.291
The medical missionaries were also reacting to a new dynamic where the highly trained WCUU
graduates were being offered outside medical positions, and the West China Mission being
critically understaffed could not afford to lose any more doctors. They wanted to retain the most
promising graduates, to reduce the workload of the foreign doctors, and to expand their medical
outreach in the Chinese community. Following the recent nationalist disturbances, foreign
medical workers were returning very slowly to Sichuan, and this provided the current
opportunity for a more rapid devolution of authority. Presently, their dispensary work was being
effectively managed by one of their recent graduates, and there were plans to combine
287 Endicott, Memorial Service for Dr. C.W. Service; The Globe, “Far from Family, Missionary Passes: Rev. C.W. Service was Outstanding West China Worker”, March 14, 1930, 15. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail. 288 Endicott, Memorial Service for Dr. C.W. Service. 289 Dr. Beech, “Report of the West China Union University to the Board of Governors”, West China Union University, (Chengdu, 1 August 1929), http://chronicles.dickinson.edu/specproj/dsoninchina/wcuu.htm#. 290 C.W. Service to Family (original letter), 3 November 1929. 291 Ibid., 13 October 1929.
46
dispensary work with the WMS. This would enable their “combined staff to see 1,500
outpatients a week and so care in a more adequate way for the very poor”.292 The dispensary
was targeted to open in early 1930 but was delayed until October due to inadequate staff.293
Figure 17 Members of the Graduate Association of WCUU 1929 (medical and dental)
Dr. Service front row, third from right; Dr. Huang Tianqi back row, third from left
(Source: Service Family)
During this period, China was also moving towards educational sovereignty, and a new chapter
was unfolding where WCUU started to transition from a university under missionary jurisdiction
to an institution governed by the new educational policies of the Nationalist Government. The
concurrent processes of rising Chinese nationalism and the expanding base of WCUU graduates
provided the foundation for devolution, and certain responsibilities were transferred to satisfy the
new government regulation that “a majority of the governing body of the university should be
Chinese”.294 In 1927, the Senate was composed of 14 Chinese and 13 foreign representatives.295
By the early 1930s, in terms of the expanding base of medicine and dentistry, the new Medical-
Dental College accounted for nearly half of all students registered at WCUU with 721 students
registered from 1930-1934.296 One of the core values of the West China Mission was the
education of female students, and when Charlie returned to China, he was encouraged by the
number of women registered in the pre-medical course and he described these students as a “very
bright lot”.297 Charlie maintained that the Chinese “possess an array of qualities which will
someday place them in the forefront of nations”, and in an article published in The Globe, in
1920, he suggested that one means of achieving this was gender equality in education. “These
292 C.W. Service in Beaton, Great Living, 22. 293 “Report of the Union Dispensary”, Report of the Chengtu Hospitals Board For the Year 1931, Chengtu, 23. 294 G.W. Sparling, “University Registration”, The West China Missionary News, (February 1928), 22, https:// divdl.library.yale.edu/divinitycontent/dayrep/9866641_1928_030-002_eng.pdf. 295 “Campus Items”, The West China Missionary News, (April 1927), 16. 296“The American Context of China’s Christian College and Schools, West China Union University”, Yale Divinity Library, http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/ChinaCollegesProject/descriptions.htm#westchina; “Students 1910-1939”, The West China Missionary News, (April 1939), 182, https://divdl.library.yale.edu/divinitycontent/ dayrep/9866641_1939_040-004_eng.pdf. 297 C. W. Service to Family (original letter), 3 November 1929.
47
multi-millions in China” Charlie argued “must and will be educated, among whom not the least
important are her women and girls who need equal opportunities with…Chinese men for
education and service.”298 WCUU was the first co-educational inland university and eight
women entered the university in 1924.299 Ten years later, in 1934, 108 women were registered at
WCUU and 32 were studying medicine and 16 were enrolled in dentistry.300
Consolidation of Health Services
One of the joint mission projects was the consolidation of health care in Chengdu, and the
Medical-Dental College appointed a special committee, composed of President Beech and
medical representatives from the various missions, to work on a federation scheme.301 The
missiological transition from an isolated impact model, towards a collective model of joint health
care delivery, was a significant operational change and in Beech’s assessment:
we all know that in conducting a medical school our hospitals are not located as they
ought to be for the medical school. We ought to have them together. They ought to be
co-operating together as one unit. But we are separated by distance and separated in
many other ways. Recently we had been trying to get together. It is rather hard to move
institutions. It is rather hard to move people after their ideals are set. But Dr. Service
among us has always been ready when the going was the hardest just to say the right
thing and to throw all his influence toward that ideal.302
This proposed union would improve the efficiency of their work, and it affected not only the
doctors, dentists and nurses, but also their institutions including the hospitals, the dispensaries,
and the Medical-Dental College. This idea had been a topic of conversation for many years, but
since the 1927 evacuation, there was a new sense of urgency to find a workable solution. Charlie
was encouraged by this development, as “it is a dream that I have had for many years and it is
now beginning to be realized”.303 Shortly after being appointed superintendent of the Canadian
Methodist Hospital in 1912, Charlie had written a document entitled Our Great Vision for Our
Medical Work where he outlined the need for adequate staff, up-to-date equipment including
laboratory and X-ray facilities, a training school for nurses, a medical college, a doctor to give
full time to public health and preventative medicine, and the “unification of the management and
direction of all the hospitals in Chengtu”.304 All the other recommendations had been achieved
and the remaining piece of the vision was now being seriously discussed.
Once the missions agreed to proceed, it took only a few meetings for their appointed
representatives to work out their collective vision for integrated health care delivery. In any
298 Charles W. Service, “The Needs of China; A Warning and a Call”, The Globe, October 23, 1920, 14. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail. 299 “WCUU Period 1910-1949”, West China Medical Center Sichuan University, http://202.115.44.126:8080/ wccmsbrief2.htm. 300 B. Louise Foster, “Woman’s College West China Union University 1934-1935”, The West China Missionary News, November 1935, 34, https://divdl.library.yale.edu/divinitycontent/dayrep/9866641_1935_037-011_eng.pdf. 301 C. W. Service to Family (original letter), 3 November 1929. 302 Dr. Beech, Address for Dr. Charles Winfield Service. 303 C. W. Service to Family (original letter), 10 November 1929. 304 Beaton, Great Living, 17-22.
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large-scale collaboration, social change happens at “the speed of trust”, and the fact this
interdenominational group was able to reach an operational consensus, within just one month,
was a significant achievement.305 The committee members were able to build from their
previous union initiatives where mission activities intersected through both professional
collaborations as well as personal connections.306 One insightful reflection on inter-mission
collaboration was described, as early as 1910, when Rev. John W. Yost of the Methodist
Episcopal Church USA reported on the early days of the educational union of the high schools.
While there have been necessarily differences of opinion, these differences have been
adjusted amicably and I think without any doubt that all the representatives of the three
missions who united are closer and warmer friends and fellow workers than they were a
year ago…One characteristic of our committee meetings for the year which seems to be
worth mentioning here has been that when any one or two members seriously objected to
some method of procedure which a majority seemed ready to adopt, the majority when
possible would frequently rule that the matter be delayed for a time till further light might
be had. Sometimes it happened that by the next meeting we were able to agree
unanimously.307
The committee reached a consensus, in November 1929, for the individual missions to pool all of
their resources related to medical work including personnel, finances, equipment, and drugs and
replace their individual control with a joint hospital board. This new Chengdu Hospitals Board
would have the authority to allocate all resources and to appoint all medical, dental and nursing
staff.308 It was also agreed that the new Hospitals Board would continue to work towards the
construction of a union teaching hospital close to the Medical-Dental Building. This idea was
first introduced in 1924, and its purpose was to “bring together in one center all of our medical
dental work in the city and make it the outstanding training hospital in this part of the world”.309
Once the Committee Members were in agreement, the next step was to convince their Home
Boards that this missiological shift would significantly improve the impact and efficiency of
medical services in Chengdu and enhance the clinical training of their students. A simultaneous
gathering of key personnel, from their home offices, was scheduled for January 1930 in Sichuan.
Rev. J.H. Arnup, one of the Board of Foreign Missions’ secretaries of the United Church,
attended the meeting of the Canadian Mission Council and “the scheme for co-ordination of all
hospitals in Chengtu under one Board met with sympathetic and favourable consideration and it
was resolved to adopt in general the scheme as presented”.310 Although Charlie would not have
the opportunity to work under this new unification scheme, as he passed away a few months
305 Stephen M.R. Covey in John Kania, Fay Hanleybrown, Jennifer Splansky Juster, “Essential Mindset Shifts for Collective Impact”, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2014. 306 “Build the collaborative governance structure”, Collaboration for Impact, http://www.collaborationforimpact. com/the-how-to-guide/phase-3-organise-for-impact/build-the-collaborative-governance-structure/. 307 Rev. John W. Yost, “Report of Union High School, Chengtu”, Minutes of the Third Annual Session of the West China Mission Council of the Methodist Episcopal Church: Chengtu January 19-24, 1910, (Shanghai: Methodist Publishing House, 1910), 45. 308 C.W. Service to Family (original letter), 10 November 1929. 309 “Forward”, Report of the Chengtu Hospitals Board For the Year 1931, Chengtu, 1. 310 “The United Church of Canada Mission Church Conference Mission Council”, The West China Missionary News, (March 1930), 22, http://images.library.yale.edu/divinitycontent/dayrep/9866641_1930_032-003_eng.pdf.
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later, his fellow committee members were successful in convincing their Home Boards to
approve the consolidation of health care services.311 The 1931 report of the Chengdu Hospitals
Board stated that the new organization has “given us a much greater degree of co-operation and
unity of direction, permitted a more satisfactory allocation of our staff members to their
respective specialities, thus improving clinical instruction and contributing to a larger hospital
service”.312 This marked “another milestone in the development” of the West China Mission,
and it reinforced the importance of collaborative missiology in the delivery of effective health
care.313
The Final Days
Charlie died in March 1930, after suffering post-operative complications, following emergency
abdominal surgery. One of his Chinese graduate students administered a local anesthetic and
Charlie, as the abdominal specialist on staff, directed the operation until circumstances
necessitated he undergo general anesthesia.314 Charlie subsequently succumbed to peritonitis
and in one of the newspaper articles in The Globe, it was reported that
the death of Rev. Charles Winfield Service, pioneer medical missionary and founder of
the medical college in connection with the West China University was announced by a
cable message received yesterday from Chengtu, West China, by the United Church
Foreign Mission Board. His death, which occurred on Monday, was due to ‘unavoidable
complications following an operation - which was successfully performed’.315
Another article in The Globe reflected that the “leaders of the United Church of Canada and
missionaries on furlough were shocked” to learn of his death as they had just received a letter
from him the day before asking for new personnel to be sent to the field. The newspaper article
went on to say that “letters received this week bespeak the good health he was enjoying a month
ago and operations which he himself was performing”.316 A cable sent by the chair of the Board
of Governors, Sir Joseph Flavelle, noted that he was “deeply grieved to hear sad news of Dr.
C.W. Service” and a decision was taken to bury Charlie at WCUU, the place where according to
the Board of Foreign Missions of The United Church of Canada:317
During the last sixteen years in addition to his regular duties as a hospital surgeon he
devoted all his time to teaching in the West China Union Medical College, and to
working for the development of that institution. From the beginning of a project for a
311 Beaton, Great Living, 22. 312 “Chengtu Hospitals Board” The West China Missionary News, (September 1932), 13, https://divdl.library. yale.edu/divinitycontent/dayrep/9866641_1932_034-009_eng.pdf. 313 C.W. Service to Family (original letter), 10 November 1929. 314 Beaton, Great Living, 33. 315 The Globe, “Pioneer Missionary Dies in West China: Rev. Charles Service Founded Medical College at Chengtu”, March 14, 1930, 4. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail. 316 The Globe, “Far from Family, Missionary Passes: Rev. C.W. Service was Outstanding West China Worker”, 15. 317 “Senate Minutes”, West China Union University, (3 April 1930, Correspondence), http://divinity-adhoc.library. yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-275-4365.pdf.
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Medical College in West China, Dr. Service has borne an increasingly heavy share for
adapting that growing institution to the complex situation in which it finds itself.318
At the Executive Committee Meeting of the Board of Governors of West China Union
University, the following resolution was incorporated into the Minutes:
This Committee has learnt with deep sorrow of the death of Dr. Charles Winfield Service
at Chengtu, West China, March 10th, last. We record our very highest appreciation of Dr.
Service’s unusual gifts as Surgeon and teacher, of his noble Christian character and of the
fine contribution which he has made to the building up of the West China Union
University, especially in connection to the Medical Department. Dr. Service had been
connected with the University almost from its foundation. He laboured unstintingly with
rare intelligence and a most gracious spirit in its upbuilding.319
The Board of Governors, at their annual meeting, passed a resolution of appreciation:
The Board records its sense of the great loss that has come to the University in the death
of Doctor Charles W. Service, the head of the departments of Surgery and Obstetrics, and
its appreciation of his sterling qualities and the fine service he rendered medical
education and suffering humanity as a Medical Missionary. We wish to associate
ourselves with his fellow workers in their estimate of him as a Christian gentleman, an
indefatigable worker, a fine teacher, physician and missionary, and a man beloved as a
friend; and, that we assure his wife and other members of his family of our sympathy
with them in their bereavement.320
The West China Mission Council discussed the “commemoration of Dr. Service in [the] Medical
Dental Building” and the following resolution was passed: “Resolved to recommend to the
Home Board that the name of the completed Medical-Dental Building be the ‘Service Memorial
College’ and that a brass plate be prepared and sent out to be placed in the completed
building”.321 Dr. James Endicott, current general secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions
and former moderator of The United Church of Canada, introduced the resolution at the
Executive Committee Meeting of the Board of Governors, in New York in May 1931, where “it
was agreed to commend the…resolution of the Mission Council, to the Board of Governors of
the West China Union University for sympathetic consideration”.322 A commemorative plate
was subsequently placed at WCUU in recognition of Charlie’s commitment to educate future
generations of Chinese doctors, dentists and nurses.
318 “Minutes, Rev. C.W. Service, B.A., M.D.”, Board of Foreign Missions, United Church of Canada, (April 1930). 319 “Minutes of the Executive Committee, Board of Governors”, West China Union University, (Toronto, 8 May 1930, #E865), http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-274-4343.pdf. 320 “Board of Governors Minutes”, West China Union University, (4 July 1930 # G899), http://divinity-adhoc. library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-272-4330.pdf. 321 United Church of Canada, General Council Archives Guide to Holdings Related to West China Medical Missions (1800-1950), 31; “Minutes of the Executive Committee, Board of Governors”, West China Union University, (New York, 14 May 1931, #E965), http://divinity-adhoc.library.yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/ RG011-274-4343.pdf. 322“Minutes of the Executive Committee, Board of Governors”, West China Union University, (New York, 14 May 1931, #E965).
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The Central Government of the People’s Republic of China nationalized WCUU in 1951, and the
Medical-Dental College continued to transition until it was incorporated into the West China
Medical Centre of Sichuan University, currently one of the top medical schools in the country.323
In describing the history of the West China Medical Centre, Sichuan University states that
the predecessor of the Centre…is West China Union University (WCUU), which was
jointly founded in Chengdu by five Western Christian Missions from the United States,
the United Kingdom, and Canada in 1910…Today, in the place where the Center
originated, there stands a comprehensive medical institution with full range of medical
disciplines, strong teaching faculty, excellent medical techniques, advanced diagnosis and
treatment equipments, and powerful scientific research capacity.324
The continued commitment of Sichuan University to deliver “medical excellence” and to “create
doctors who can provide that excellence for generations to come” was the same commitment
affirmed by the medical missionaries over a century ago, and Charlie had such confidence in the
ability of his students to provide quality health care.325 One of his final tasks was marking his
student’s examination papers, and in a letter to his family, he indicated his delight that “the only
girl in the clinical years of medicine…beat the boys” and received the top marks in third year.326
This student Dr. Yoh Ih-chen would be recognized as the first female medical graduate from
WCUU, and she would later be appointed professor and eventually head of obstetrics and
gynecology.327 Another student in fourth year was characterized to his family as “perhaps the
best all-round and cleverest student we have ever had”, and Charlie had “an eye on him to train
for surgery”, and he was also thinking of recommending him for postdoctoral studies at the
University of Toronto.328 The positive impact of the recent medical graduates was also very
encouraging to Charlie, and he described the “splendid spirit prevailing…between the Chinese
doctors, nurses and foreigners. Moreover the presence of several very efficient Chinese
doctors…does ease the very heavy load for us all”.329 Charlie was clearly inspired by his
students, and this provided some comfort in his final days knowing that his responsibilities were
being transferred to this next generation of capable Chinese doctors.
The Service Fund
Upon Charlie’s death, a fund was established to honour his commitment to disadvantaged
patients identified in the dispensary for surgery. According to one of his medical colleagues Dr.
T.W. Williams, Charlie “was constantly pleading with the hospital management for financial
323 Nathan Vanderklippe, “China’s history with missionaries forms modern Canadian relations”, The Globe and Mail, (14 April 2017), http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=MjUyMzE5NjE%3D; West China School of Medicine / West China Hospital of Sichuan University, “About Us”, http://eng.cd120.com/a/aboutus/. 324 “About Us”, West China Medical Center Sichuan University, http://wcums.scu.edu.cn/about_en.asp. 325 “About Us”, West China School of Medicine / West China Hospital of Sichuan University. 326 C.W. Service to Family (original letter), 9 February 1930. 327 United Church of Canada Archives, “Administrative History of West China Medical Missions”, in General Council Archives Guide to Holdings Related to West China Medical Missions (1800-1950), Toronto, 7; “WCUU Period 1910-1949, West China Medical Center Sichuan University, http://202.115.44.126:8080/wccmsbrief2.htm; “Staff List Spring 1949, College of Medicine and Dentistry”, West China Union University, 19, http://divinity-adhoc.library. yale.edu/UnitedBoard/West_China_Union_University/RG011-279-4407.pdf. 328 C.W. Service to Family (original letter), 9 February 1930. 329 C.W. Service to Family (original letter), 3 November 1929.
52
consideration of patients who had appealed to his great heart. Indeed this was the real beginning
of our appeal for the Samaritan Fund for he deposited money of his own to be used for operation
fees for poor patients and we but enlarged the plan and appeal”.330 As a memorial to Charlie, the
name of the Good Samaritan Fund was changed to the Service Fund, as “it has been given by the
Chengtu community in memory of Dr. Service”.331
Official church policy towards hospital funding was shifting from its early days, when it was
predominately a granting agency, to the current situation where the hospitals were encouraged to
be self-supporting.332 Charlie agreed with the principle of striving for self-support and about two
decades earlier had elucidated that “complete self-support may be far from possible for most of
us involved in medical work, but I firmly believe that it should be an aim toward which we
should steadily strive” and “those who can pay should pay according to means”.333 However,
while their middle and upper-class patients could afford hospital care, the front-line medical
workers were concerned about the ethical issues of accessibility and fairness because their poorer
patients were finding it difficult to pay for medical treatment. This policy went against their
social gospel principles and “support of this Fund helps the hospitals to care for the needy and
distressed who look to hospitals for healing”.334
The medical community initiated an annual appeal recognizing that “with falling appropriations
and increasing cost of drugs and equipment, we need your help that we may carry on the
tradition that none worthy of help need be turned away”.335 Donations were received from the
foreign and Chinese communities, and the targeted Chengdu institutions were the Canadian
Methodist Hospital, the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat
Hospital, and the Dental Hospital.336 Some of the rules for administering the funds included
• that the name shall be the Service Fund
• that the use of the money be reported in the West China News
• the Orphanage children and Blind School students are legitimate claimants
• chronic cases whose funds are exhausted may be helped
• student cases are to be considered on the merits of each case337
In the May 1932 edition of The West China Missionary News, it was noted that $2,054 was
raised in the previous fiscal year and distributed between the four hospitals.338 The Service Fund
covered a variety of hospital fees including the surgical treatment of tuberculosis cases, cataract
330 T.H. Williams, “Dr. Charles Winfield Service”, The West China Missionary News, (April 1930), 39, http://images. library.yale.edu/divinitycontent/dayrep/9866641_1930_032-004_eng.pdf. 331 “Report of the Service Fund for the Past Year”, The West China Missionary News, (May 1932), 11, https://divdl. library.yale.edu/divinitycontent/dayrep/9866641_1932_034-005_eng.pdf. 332 Leslie Kilborn, “The Medical Services of the Canadian Mission in Szechwan”, The West China Missionary News, 12. 333 C. W. Service, “Self Support”, in West China Missionary Conference, 245, 247. 334 “Report of the Service Fund for the Past Year”, The West China Missionary News, (May 1932), 14 335 Ibid., 14. 336 Ibid., 13-14. 337 Ibid., 13. 338 Ibid.
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operations, the setting of broken legs, diphtheria antitoxin for children, dental care for
gangrenous infections, mastoidectomy cases, and tracheotomy procedures.339
After Charlie passed away, Robina continued the family tradition of supporting the hospital costs
for deserving patients, and she provided an annual donation to the Service Fund. Although
Robina would not return to China, she remained active in the Women’s Missionary Society of
Trinity United Church in Toronto, as well as being a member of the Women’s Canadian Club
and the Victoria College Women’s Association. In her final years, Robina lived with her
daughter Margaret Smale until her death in March 1957.340
The Next Generation
Charlie was also passing his responsibilities to his son, William, known as Bill. After
completing his medical degree at U of T, Bill took three years of postgraduate training at the
Toronto General Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children. In 1942, Bill approached the
Canadian military about serving overseas during the war, and it was determined that he could
consider his posting as a medical missionary to China, an allied country, as his contribution to
the war effort. Bill was initially assigned to Chengdu for language training, and he also worked
part-time at WCUU. While in Chengdu, Bill had the opportunity to attend the opening ceremony
of the West China Hospital, and this would have been a special occasion for him, as this was the
central teaching hospital envisioned by his father and his interdenominational colleagues. Today
this hospital is known as West China Hospital of Sichuan University and is also referred to as
Huaxi Hospital or the International Hospital of Sichuan Province.
Figure 18: Dr. William Service and colleagues, Canadian Mission Hospital, Chongqing
(Source: Service Family)
His main assignment was in Chongqing, the wartime capital for the Nationalist Government,
during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Dr. Stewart Allen, a senior medical missionary, was on
furlough and in 1944, Bill was appointed chief surgeon and superintendent of the Canadian
Methodist Hospital. He also served as the chairperson of the International Relief Committee for
339 Ibid., 12. 340 The Globe, “Mrs. C.W. Service: Spent 25 Years with Mission in West China”, March 15, 1957, 4. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail.
54
the seven western provinces. This committee worked with the Canadian Red Cross, hospitals,
schools, and universities to distribute medical aid to Chinese citizens affected by the war.
Bill was also following in the medical footsteps of Dr. Cecil Hoffman who along with his wife
Marie, a trained nurse, provided health care services in Sichuan from 1932-1947. Dr. Hoffman
was from a second-generation missionary family, and his parents were involved with the West
China Mission for 42 years. In 1903, Rev. A.C. and Minnie Hoffman travelled with the Service
family up the Yangtze River to Sichuan and 50 years later, the Service and Hoffman families
would be united through the marriage of their grandchildren, Ted (Service) Smale and Dorothea
(Hoffman) Smale.
The Service family would be united with another missionary family, in 1945, when Bill married
Norma Thompson, the daughter of John and Ena Thompson. Norma’s mother was a skilled
clothing designer, and she established a women’s group to augment the income of disadvantaged
women living in Chengdu.341 Later, Ena would serve as matron of Llewellyn Hall in Oshawa,
Ontario, where she looked after the children of missionary families while their parents served in
overseas missions. Norma’s father was “one of the pioneer dentists of the Mission” from 1909-
1932, and he provided clinical dental services in Chengdu while also serving itinerate mission
stations throughout Sichuan.342 John also had a keen interest in dental education, and he was
“one of the founders of the Dental Faculty of the West China Union University” and he was
instrumental in the training of Dr. Huang Tianqi, the first dental graduate in China.343
Norma and Bill knew each other from their childhood days, as they were both born in Chengdu
and were classmates at the Canadian School. Later Norma attended U of T where she obtained a
degree in social work, and she was initially hired by the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto to
provide protection services to at-risk children and was eventually appointed as head of the
Adoption Department. This experience in social work intervention was recognized by U of T,
and Norma was hired as a part-time sessional faculty member in the School of Social Work.344
Her trip to China took six months due to war time conditions, and in 1944, Norma sailed from
New York to Europe, where she stayed for several months, until she was able to secure passage
on a British troop ship to Mumbai, India. After arriving in Chongqing, Norma became involved
with the Canadian Red Cross, and her interest in non-profit organizations dedicated to improving
the social situation of vulnerable people would continue throughout her life. Norma was also
connected with the for-profit sector and she was the first Canadian woman to sit on the board of
directors of a financial institution. She was appointed in 1976 as a director of Victoria and Grey
Trust Company which was founded by the Flavelle family in Lindsay, Ontario.345 After
341 “Departmental Surveys - Industrial Education”, Our West China Mission, 337. 342 “Minutes, Dr. and Mrs. C.W. McD. Service”, Board of Overseas Missions, United Church of Canada, (1952). 343 “Minutes, Dr. John E. Thompson”, Board of Foreign Missions, (April 1933). 344 University of Toronto, University of Toronto Report of the Board of Governors for the Year Ended 30th June 1944, (Toronto: T.E. Bowman, 1945), 137, https://archive.org/stream/uoftreportgov1944univ/Uoftreportgov1944univ_ djvu.txt. 345 “Annual Report: Victoria and Grey Trust Company”, The Globe and Mail, February 6, 1976, B4. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Globe and Mail.
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amalgamating with the National Trust Company, it was purchased in 1997 by the Bank of Nova
Scotia.346
Figure 19: Bill and Norma Service with nursing staff and graduates, Chongqing, 1948
(Source: United Church of Canada Archives, United Church Observer, Feb. 1, 1949, 7)
Their son, John, was born in 1946 and according to Bill, the family received expert care from the
Chinese doctor and nurses. In 1948, the Services departed to Toronto, for their regular furlough,
where Bill pursued postgraduate training and obtained his FRCS (Fellow of the Royal College of
Surgeons). They were to return, as part of the staff of WCUU, and their return was classified as
pending in December 1949, with travel plans arranged for February 1950.347 Unable to secure
entry visas for their personnel, the United Church considered “Service a test case” in June 1950
but were unable to attain the required documents from the Chinese government.348
Bill officially requested a leave of absence and then permanently resigned in 1952, and although
he was no longer an employee of the United Church, Bill remained active in their overseas work.
From 1962-1972, he served as a member and the first non-ordained chairman of the Board of
World Mission. During this postcolonial period, the church was adapting to the restructuring of
the international system following the decolonization of the overseas empires and the rapid
formation of new nation-states. Canadian society was also evolving and historian Don
Schweitzer elucidates that “as the United Church was challenged by the cultural upheavals of the
1960’s, it did not cling defensively to its past and retreat into a sectarian posture. Instead, it
remained open to Canadian society and active in it”.349
346 “The Scotiabank Story”, Inside Scotiabank, https://www.scotiabank.com/ca/en/0,,476,00.html. Sir Joseph Flavelle was the founding president of the National Trust Company. Henry Newton Rowell Jackman, the grandson of the Hon. Newton Rowell, was the chair of the board of National Trust, at the time of amalgamation, and would later serve as the lieutenant governor of Ontario. 347 “Minutes, Dr. and Mrs. C.W. McD. Service”, Board of Overseas Missions, United Church of Canada, (1952). United Church of Canada Archives, General Council Archives Guide to Holdings Related to West China Medical Missions (1800-1958), 128-129, http://www.united-church.ca/sites/default/files/handbook_research-guide-west-china.pdf. 348 United Church of Canada Archives, General Council Archives Guide to Holdings Related to West China Medical Missions (1800-1958), 128-130. 349 Don Schweitzer, “The Changing Social Imaginary of The United Church of Canada”, in The United Church of Canada: A History, ed. Don Schweitzer, (Waterloo: Wilford Laurier University Press), 292.
56
After examining its historic approach to missions, the church community developed a new
overseas policy and organizational structure to more accurately reflect “the changing face of
mission” emerging within the church.350 In 1972, the Executive of the General Council
appointed Bill, the founding chairman of the Division of World Outreach, on the premise that
“with your experience as Chairman of the Board of World Mission it is going to be possible right
from the beginning of the life and work of the Division of World Outreach to have the wisdom
and guidance in the affairs of the Division fulfilled in your very capable way”.351 This
recalibrated mandate allowed the United Church to transition from a missionary enterprise
establishing new institutions into a responsive organization supporting national institutions,
humanitarian relief operations, and long-term “strategic and catalytic” development programs
initiated by their global partners.352
Impact on Canadian Society
The emergence of Canada as an influential middle power was significantly shaped by the sons
and daughters born in China to missionary parents. These individuals “had the opportunity to
travel widely”, and Bill Service would contend that since “our school was set in the midst of an
old and great culture…this contact with another great people and their thought was of
inestimable value”.353 The missionary enterprise left a traceable footprint both in China and
Canada as these individuals eventually became missionaries in reverse within Canadian
society.354 Their parents had set sail as idealistic university graduates to, in the case of the
medical missionaries, disseminate medical care and education. Along their journey, they
transitioned into international citizens who became advocates of global interdependence
encouraging Canadians to realize that “we are living in a great bundle of nationhood nowadays”
and as Charlie Service suggested, “what is the concern of one is the concern of all”.355
This global humanitarian vision influenced their bicultural children. While the international
outreach of the United Church was being recalibrated by Bill Service and Katharine Hockin,
other returning personnel from China were providing transformative leadership in a myriad of
organizations. Some returned to university campuses as professors and administrators
establishing East Asian programs and encouraging educational exchanges.356 Others like Donald
Faris inspired the 1960s movement towards secular international development causes,
specifically the creation of the Canadian University Services Organization (CUSO), which
350 C.W.M. Service, “The Changing Face of Mission: Board of World Mission, Chairman’s Report, November 1971”, in Ruth Compton Brouwer, “When Missions Became Development: Ironies of ‘NGOization’ in Mainstream Canadian Churches in the 1960s”, The Canadian Historical Review, Vol. 91, No. 4, (2010), 683. 351 Rev. Donald Ray, “Letter to Dr. Service from the Deputy Secretary of the General Council”, United Church of Canada, May 1972. 352 C.W.M. Service, “An Address at the Sixtieth Anniversary Reunion, June 22, 1969”, Canadian School in West China, 51-53. 353 Ibid., 47-49. 354 Terrill B. Lautz, “The SVM and Transformation of the Protestant Mission to China”, in China’s Christian Colleges: Cross-Cultural Connections 1900-1950, eds. Daniel H. Bays and Ellen Widmer, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009), 19. 355 C. W. Service, “Some of China’s Problems, Address to the Empire Club of Canada”, 30 October 1919, 369-384. 356 Alvyn Austin, “Missionaries, Scholars, and Diplomats: China Missions and Canadian Public Life”, in Religion and Public Life in China: Historical and Comparative Perspectives, ed. Marguerite Van Die, (Toronto: Toronto University Press, 2001), 145-146.
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recruited recent university graduates to volunteer in developing countries.357 Some children of
China-based missionary families joined the Department of External Affairs, currently referred to
as Global Affairs Canada. While the former China-based missionaries working at the American
State Department were purged during the anti-communist McCarthy era, the Canadians, known
as the China mish kids or old China hands, became persuasive champions guiding the process of
engagement with China which was in sharp contrast to the American policy of isolation and
containment.358
During this period, the United Church continued to lobby the Canadian government to recognize
the People’s Republic of China. Their positive messaging was evident in 1969 when the selected
topic, for their annual congregational study, was Understanding China and the Chinese People.
“Surely this is significant” Bill Service would suggest “of a large desire on the part of the United
Church to bring about a greater degree of appreciation and understanding”.359
Canada normalized relations with the People’s Republic of China in October 1970, and it was
Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s belief that China would become “one of the two or three
most influential countries in the world. For that reason, it must not be allowed to assume that it
is without friends”.360 Fifty years earlier, Charlie Service had expressed a similar sentiment, in
an article in The Globe, when he concluded “that there is no doubt” the Chinese “possess an
array of qualities which will someday place them in the forefront of nations”.361 The bilateral
negotiations between Canada and China were held in Stockholm over a 20 month period, and the
chief Canadian negotiator was an old China hand from the West China Mission, Robert
Edmunds.362 Subsequent to normalizing relations, Ralph Collins, John Small and Arthur
Menzies, all born in China to missionary parents, were appointed as the first three Canadian
ambassadors from 1971 to 1980.363 Following in their ambassadorial footsteps, three decades
later, was David Mulroney, and in his book Middle Power, Middle Kingdom, he posits that non-
state actors, like the medical missionaries, have helped Canadians to understand “that our foreign
policy is incomplete without a thoughtful engagement of China”.364
357 Ruth Compton Brouwer, “From Missionaries to NGOs”, in Canada and the Third World, eds. Karen Dubinsky, Sean Mills and Scott Rutherford, (Tonawanda, New York: University of Toronto Press, 2016), 138. 358 Paul M. Evans, Engaging China: Myth, Aspiration, and Strategy in Canadian Policy from Trudeau to Harper, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014), 11; Aileen McCabe, “Decision to recognize China a watershed movement for Canada and the People’s Republic”, Postmedia News, October 9, 2010, http://www.canada.com/ life/Decision+recognize+China+watershed+moment+Canada+People+Republic/3647075/story.html; B. Michael Frolic, “Canada and China at 40”, Asia Colloquia Papers, Vol. 1, No. 1, (Toronto: York Centre for Asian Research), 10, https://ycar.apps01.yorku.ca/wpcontent/uploads/2013/09/Asia_Colloquia_Papers_Frolic.pdf; Alvyn Austin, “Missionaries, Scholars, and Diplomats: China Missions and Canadian Public Life”, Religion and Public Life in China: Historical and Comparative Perspectives “, 144. 359 C.W.M. Service, “An Address at the Sixtieth Anniversary Reunion, June 22, 1969”, Canadian School in West China, 51. 360 Pierre Elliot Trudeau in Evans, Engaging China, 25. 361 Charles W. Service, “The Needs of China; A Warning and a Call”, The Globe, October 23, 1920, 14. 362 Robert Edmonds, “Negotiations For Canadian Recognition of the People’s Republic of China”, Canadian School in West China, 286-287. 363 Austin, “Missionaries, Scholars, and Diplomats: China Missions and Canadian Public Life”, Religion and Public Life in China: Historical and Comparative Perspectives, 145. 364 David Mulroney, Middle Power, Middle Kingdom, (Toronto: Allen Lane, 2015), 231.
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Return to China
In subsequent years, many of these second-generation families revisited their Chinese roots.
This has created an interesting dynamic where their bicultural memories of residing in China
have been juxtaposed against their current reality of being observers of modern China. The
Service family followed this typical pattern, and in May 1978, Bill organized a tour to China on
behalf of Fleming College.365 Three years earlier, Fleming College had awarded a Fellowship in
Applied Education to Bill noting that his life “extended the normal bounds of the Hippocratic
oath…to the benefit of the local, national and international community”.366 Bill and Norma
spent two weeks in China, and just five months later, Bill passed away in October 1978. It was
30 years since Bill and Norma had been to China, and it was very evident to the members of the
tour that they still had a strong emotional connection to Chinese society.367 In recognition of this
fact, and to honour Bill, the tour participants raised funds to donate medical books to the library
of Chongqing Hospital Number 5 in “recognition for his admiration and affection for China and
her people”.368 Norma was thrilled that another generation of Chinese doctors and nurses would
benefit from the medical textbooks, especially since this was the hospital where both Charlie and
Bill had served as superintendent. Canadian historian Alvyn Austin would suggest that
Sometimes brilliant parents begat a missionary dynasty…Dr. Charles Winfield Service,
who died at his post after thirty years of service, fathered Dr. Charles William Service,
known as Bill; both were remembered as gentle souls who made the world a better place
by having passed through it”.369
Figure 20: Bill Service visiting a hospital (1978) Figure 21: Donation to Hospital Number 5, Chongqing
(Source: Service Family)
365 Fleming College was originally known as Sir Sanford Fleming College. The main campus is in Peterborough, Ontario with several satellite campuses, one of which is in Lindsay, Ontario, Canada. 366 Elizabeth Clarkson, Chairman, Board of Governors, “Citation: Dr. Charles William McDonald Service Fellowship in Applied Education”, Sir Sanford Fleming College, Lindsay Convocation, May 10, 1975. 367 Bill and Norma’s daughter Elizabeth was one of the participants on the 1978 tour to China. In 2012, their daughter Francie visited Sichuan University and attended the opening ceremony of the China Museum of Stomatology, and this tour was organized by the Old China Photo Project and the Canadian Embassy in Beijing. 368 The dedication in the medical textbooks donated to Chongqing Hospital Number 5. Mr. Bill Small, a close family friend and in his position of Vice-President of York University, contacted the Dean of the Medical Faculty of the University of Toronto and the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa for their assistance. Bill Small was born in China and posted to Chengdu in 1941 and worked at WCUU for ten years. 369 Austin, Saving China, 170-171.