| Description | Papers relating to the medical work in Foochow [Fuzhou], China, of CMS missionary, Dr George Wilkinson and to Amy Wilkinson's work at the 'Blind Boys' School', Foochow [Fuzhou]. Including papers relating to the Wilkinsons' resignation in 1921, printed annual reports 1916-1919, and photographs of school pupils. |
| Copyright | Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing, from the Director of Special Collections (email: special-collections@contacts.bham.ac.uk), the Church Mission Society (email: maddy.peston@churchmissionsociety.org), data subjects, and any other rights holders. Requests to publish should be accompanied by a copy of proposed text. Special Collections will assist where possible with identifying other copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material. |
| Administrative History | Amy Isabel Oxley (d 1949) of Australia went out to China as a nursing missionary under the Church Missionary Association of New South Wales in 1895. From 1898 she worked at the 'School for Blind Boys' at 'Dengdoi' and then founded and ran a school for children who were blind in Foochow [Fuzhou]. In 1920, she was awarded the Order of the Golden Grain for her work as principal of the school.
George Wilkinson, surgeon, was born in 1866 at Sturton-le-Steeple, Nottinghamshire and educated at Gainsborough Grammar School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge where he qualified in medicine in 1892. He worked as House Surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital and Bolton Hospital before becoming Director of the Islington Medical Mission. In 1899 he was accepted by the CMS as a missionary and was located to the 'Fuhkien' [Fujian] mission in China. On the opening of the CMS Hospital at 'Foochow' [Fuzhou] in 1901, Dr Wilkinson was appointed as medical superintendent and over the next twenty years oversaw the development and expansion of hospital services in the 'Fuhkien' mission area.
The Wilkinsons married in 1902. They resigned for family reasons December 1920.
Sources: Register of missionaries (clerical, lay & female) and native clergy from 1804 to 1904 (Church Missionary Society, 1905); CMS catalogue; CMS periodicals: 'The Church Missionary Gleaner', 1 Nov 1920 (page 245). 'Mercy and Truth' March 1921 (page 49); 'The Church Missionary Review' September 1925 (page 204). |
| Custodial History | CMS received the collection in August 2000 (source: CMS catalogue). CMS retained the photographs and postcard when they transferred the rest of the collection to the University of Birmingham, Special Collections in May 2007; the records which had been retained were transferred to University of Birmingham, Special Collections: Cadbury Research Library by CMS, 30 April 2025. |