The Bousfields of China: Medical Pioneers
The Bousfields of China: Medical Pioneers
Cyril Eustace Bousfield was born 30 October 1870 in Bishop's Hull, Somerset, southwest England, to a devout Anglican pastor and his wife, Rev. Christopher W. and Ellen Aldridge Bousfield. His parents valued education, so he studied hard from an early age, even learning Latin at age seven and Greek at age eleven. Cyril earned the BA and MA degrees from Christ's College, Cambridge, and was ordained into the Anglican ministry upon his graduation in 1893. Cyril was then appointed as an associate pastor at a prestigious congregation in London.
Soon Cyril sensed a deep call of God to become a missionary to China, just like his fellow mates at college, called the Cambridge Seven, who had surrendered to the China Mission in 1885. Cyril set sail in 1896 and became part of the East China Anglican Mission team. He met Lillie Snowdon in Chaoyang, an engaging missionary schoolteacher who had been in China for some time with the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. Lillie was born on 23 November 1868 in New York, soon after her parents had immigrated from England and entered America through Castle Garden on Manhattan Island.
Cyril became a Baptist in his first years on the field, and grew to believe that more people could be won to Christ if he practiced medicine and could serve both physical and spiritual needs. He took a furlough to the United States in order to earn a medical degree, and then spent a year's internship at the Pennsylvania Medical School in Shanghai. He was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1899, the year he returned to China as an American Baptist medical missionary, married Lillie Snowdon, and became the director of the American Baptist Mission Hospital in Shaoxing. He was an early advocate, and at times the lone voice, for a self-supporting hospital, mission, and the theological training of indigenous leadership. His plan for administering this kind of ministry, in time, became a model for the rest of China's missions.
Cyril and Lillie soon had four sons born to them in China: Theodore Goddard, Roger Eustace, Weston Ashmore, and Neil Dow. The Bousfields found deep joy in their work. They also knew inexpressible sorrow as well, for they buried two sons in their lifetime. Their eldest son, Theodore, died at age ten of diabetes, and Roger died early at thirty-four. Their family was also targeted by those who hated foreigners. About 1900, the violent anti-Western movement in China, called the Boxer Rebellion, took the lives of many missionaries, but the Bousfields were able to escape each time they were attacked. They spent the next few years fleeing the mobs, even while trying to keep regular clinic hours in hospitals, in courtyards, and in village community huts. The meticulous notes and photographs Cyril took have now become primary sources for scholars studying the history of the Chinese Communist uprising era.
In 1910, the Bousfields moved to the South China Mission in Meizhou, and then in Changingzhen in Xunwu, opening a new mission station and hospital there in 1912. After communists burned down Bousfield's hospital, home, and church building, however, Cyril asked to be transferred to the Mission Hospital at Chaoyang in Liaoning, which today is the Chaoyang Central Hospital. There, he was barred from having leprosy patients enter the hospital. Cyril then repaired an old ancestral temple behind his house, telling the patients to go there every Monday and Friday, where he treated them. Bousfield had to add two more weekdays to accommodate the sheer number of patients. His working hours were long and harrowing, because he aimed to tailor his treatments to each patient to minimize discomfort, yet he said he would rather do nothing else than to serve the Chinese.
After an extended furlough in the US, so that Cyril could earn an advanced degree at Harvard Medical School, they returned to China in 1920. Cyril founded the Sunwuhsien Mission Hospital and introduced smallpox vaccinations there during a virulent outbreak. In Bousfield's first smallpox season he was only able to persuade eighteen parents to allow him to vaccinate their children. In the second season, he vaccinated around a hundred people. In the third season, a deacon at Vongshong invited Bousfield to vaccinate everyone in his village. While smallpox was particularly deadly in the regions surrounding it, everyone in that vaccinated village survived. The Chinese then willingly received vaccines and, after a few years, smallpox was seldom seen. Cyril had earned the respect and trust of the Chinese, who called him, "Pastor Bao."
He was also famous for his work with leprosy and cholera patients. At the time, both diseases were rampant in cities and villages. Lepers lived openly in and among their own families and communities, leading to a high degree of contagion. Cholera was largely untreated as well. Because of Cyril's careful training and individualized treatment plans, however, the numbers of lepers decreased and cholera survivors increased. His relentless care through the years saw tens of thousands restored to health.
Cyril and Lillie retired from the field in 1937, and began to serve at the Maine Sea Coast Mission in the US, near their sons' families. He then became physician for the island of North Haven. They moved to Woolwich, Maine in 1941, where Cyril continued to care for the bodies and souls of the people of this rural area. Lillie died on 22 July 1946, and was buried in the tiny Laurel Grove Cemetery just north of Woolwich and the First Baptist Church, on Highway 127. Cyril lived until 1959 and was buried by her side.
This month, as we consider the significant interlocking circles of Christian responsibility, the application of moral decision-making, and global health, we think of servants like Cyril and Lillie. They chose to dedicate their lives to ease the suffering - both body and soul - of people who, many times, resisted them or tried to do them harm. Like their Lord, their quiet perseverance and tender care of others paved the way for hearts to open toward the Savior. We celebrate these healers as peace-weavers, and thank God for their legacy among us.
-Karen O'Dell Bullock
Soon Cyril sensed a deep call of God to become a missionary to China, just like his fellow mates at college, called the Cambridge Seven, who had surrendered to the China Mission in 1885. Cyril set sail in 1896 and became part of the East China Anglican Mission team. He met Lillie Snowdon in Chaoyang, an engaging missionary schoolteacher who had been in China for some time with the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. Lillie was born on 23 November 1868 in New York, soon after her parents had immigrated from England and entered America through Castle Garden on Manhattan Island.
Cyril became a Baptist in his first years on the field, and grew to believe that more people could be won to Christ if he practiced medicine and could serve both physical and spiritual needs. He took a furlough to the United States in order to earn a medical degree, and then spent a year's internship at the Pennsylvania Medical School in Shanghai. He was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1899, the year he returned to China as an American Baptist medical missionary, married Lillie Snowdon, and became the director of the American Baptist Mission Hospital in Shaoxing. He was an early advocate, and at times the lone voice, for a self-supporting hospital, mission, and the theological training of indigenous leadership. His plan for administering this kind of ministry, in time, became a model for the rest of China's missions.
Cyril and Lillie soon had four sons born to them in China: Theodore Goddard, Roger Eustace, Weston Ashmore, and Neil Dow. The Bousfields found deep joy in their work. They also knew inexpressible sorrow as well, for they buried two sons in their lifetime. Their eldest son, Theodore, died at age ten of diabetes, and Roger died early at thirty-four. Their family was also targeted by those who hated foreigners. About 1900, the violent anti-Western movement in China, called the Boxer Rebellion, took the lives of many missionaries, but the Bousfields were able to escape each time they were attacked. They spent the next few years fleeing the mobs, even while trying to keep regular clinic hours in hospitals, in courtyards, and in village community huts. The meticulous notes and photographs Cyril took have now become primary sources for scholars studying the history of the Chinese Communist uprising era.
In 1910, the Bousfields moved to the South China Mission in Meizhou, and then in Changingzhen in Xunwu, opening a new mission station and hospital there in 1912. After communists burned down Bousfield's hospital, home, and church building, however, Cyril asked to be transferred to the Mission Hospital at Chaoyang in Liaoning, which today is the Chaoyang Central Hospital. There, he was barred from having leprosy patients enter the hospital. Cyril then repaired an old ancestral temple behind his house, telling the patients to go there every Monday and Friday, where he treated them. Bousfield had to add two more weekdays to accommodate the sheer number of patients. His working hours were long and harrowing, because he aimed to tailor his treatments to each patient to minimize discomfort, yet he said he would rather do nothing else than to serve the Chinese.
After an extended furlough in the US, so that Cyril could earn an advanced degree at Harvard Medical School, they returned to China in 1920. Cyril founded the Sunwuhsien Mission Hospital and introduced smallpox vaccinations there during a virulent outbreak. In Bousfield's first smallpox season he was only able to persuade eighteen parents to allow him to vaccinate their children. In the second season, he vaccinated around a hundred people. In the third season, a deacon at Vongshong invited Bousfield to vaccinate everyone in his village. While smallpox was particularly deadly in the regions surrounding it, everyone in that vaccinated village survived. The Chinese then willingly received vaccines and, after a few years, smallpox was seldom seen. Cyril had earned the respect and trust of the Chinese, who called him, "Pastor Bao."
He was also famous for his work with leprosy and cholera patients. At the time, both diseases were rampant in cities and villages. Lepers lived openly in and among their own families and communities, leading to a high degree of contagion. Cholera was largely untreated as well. Because of Cyril's careful training and individualized treatment plans, however, the numbers of lepers decreased and cholera survivors increased. His relentless care through the years saw tens of thousands restored to health.
Cyril and Lillie retired from the field in 1937, and began to serve at the Maine Sea Coast Mission in the US, near their sons' families. He then became physician for the island of North Haven. They moved to Woolwich, Maine in 1941, where Cyril continued to care for the bodies and souls of the people of this rural area. Lillie died on 22 July 1946, and was buried in the tiny Laurel Grove Cemetery just north of Woolwich and the First Baptist Church, on Highway 127. Cyril lived until 1959 and was buried by her side.
This month, as we consider the significant interlocking circles of Christian responsibility, the application of moral decision-making, and global health, we think of servants like Cyril and Lillie. They chose to dedicate their lives to ease the suffering - both body and soul - of people who, many times, resisted them or tried to do them harm. Like their Lord, their quiet perseverance and tender care of others paved the way for hearts to open toward the Savior. We celebrate these healers as peace-weavers, and thank God for their legacy among us.
-Karen O'Dell Bullock
Posted in PeaceWeavers