Ancil Benjamin Nance was born in c1903 and was the eldest of 10 children. His father was an unschooled farmer in California, cultivating on ‘Fresno hardpan’, a naturally impervious rock layer varying from 6 inches to 6 feet beneath the surface. Because father was ill, Ancil was unable to complete High School, but rather took on the farm in order to support his family. With that and a background of the Great Depression, he grew up with skills with meagre resources that would benefit his family and others significantly in later life.
He met Beth Kennington through her church in Portland, Oregon, and when she started at the Western Theological Seminary in 1937, he performed a much-needed service by driving her to and from classes. One thing that attracted Beth to him was that he was a great Bible student. They became engaged and married in 1939 without finishing their courses at the seminary, and sailed for China at the end of that year. Beth was expecting but they both had a heart to serve the Yunnan tribes there.
For the fuller family picture of their lives see Beth Nance’s page which is taken from her book ‘My Life’. There is enough information on the two of them to render repetition here de trop.
They paused in Hong Kong after their arrival in 1940, awaiting funding for the final leg to China, but the looming war with Japan was to keep them there for the next 5 years. They quickly became involved in the Clifts’ Emmanuel Church in Kowloon, worked in the Book Room there, and even boarded with them for a while. The Clifts’ amah was a very useful extra pair of hands with bringing up daughter Winifred, (born 1940). Ancil junior was born in 1941 and Jonathan and Eunice later in Stanley Camp.
Through the church they found other avenues of service. They ran an outreach programme for young people, including British servicemen, and this group helped at the newly opened Fanling Babies’ Home, putting on a memorable Christmas party in December 1940.
In January 1941 the HK Telegraph has Ancil in the Emmanuel Church notices leading a young men's Bible Study Group at 9 Hill Wood Road. This was the Nance's address at that time. In the June edition it has Ancil and Beth leading a weekly young people's group on a Sunday afternoon, and then Beth as the speaker in the Sunday evening service.
The Nances chose not to leave Hong Kong when the government announced evacuation to British subjects, and so were caught up when the Japanese attacked in December 1941. When the time came to go to Stanley Camp in January 42, with the help of the Koeppens and Ancil’s skilful negotiation with the Japanese officer-in-charge, the Nances came away with 24 Carnation Milk boxes of equipment and provisions, two suitcases and even Ancil’s banjo. (The regulation amount was one luggage item per person.) With Ancil’s practical skills and inventive ingenuity, it was all to be of huge value to the family and others in the camp in the times to come. The Nances moved into what had been a bedroom in the ‘American block’ of the prison complex.
Thanks to Ancil’s mechanical skills they were given responsibility for items like a pump organ and the one camp sewing machine*. (Beth used her machine skills to make items of clothing) Ancil used his tools to make items like folding chairs for fellow internees, washing lines from the copious amounts of barbed wire round the camp, and peanut oil lamps.
The Nances refused repatriation a second time in 1942, feeling there was work for them to do still in Stanley Camp.
From an early stage in the internment, food was scarce and there was a realisation of the need for cultivation of any productive land in the confines of the camp. Ancil took soil from less accessible parts of the camp and put a 10 inch layer on the concrete driveway in front of their building, successfully supplementing their diet with what it produced. Others thought it crazy at first, but they didn’t know he had farmed on hardpan.
Dr Clift visited one day with some packets of seeds sent by Chinese friends in Kowloon, knowing that Ancil would make good use of them. Some of it was beet seed, and the crops improved the health of their children and others they shared with.
When sweet potato was on the menu, Ancil approached the kitchens and asked for their share in raw state. He was given two potatoes, which he cut up and planted, and successfully grew. He had noticed that the Chinese fed sweet potato leaves to their pigs, and deduced it should be safe for human consumption as well, and they and fellow internees benefitted. After the war when a doctor back home checked the children’s health, he was astonished how well they were. When Ancil told of the sweet potato leaves, the doctor confirmed that there was more protein in sweet potato leaves than spinach or other green vegetables.
Ancil was also careful not to consume all their produce but to save part for the next season’s planting. This benefitted not just them, but others who just weren’t used to thinking ahead. ‘Ancil’s vegetables were key to our survival,’ wrote Beth.
When flour was provided, with the help of two Maryknoll priests who provided yeast from their mission, Ancil was able to make bread, another skill learned from his upbringing.
So they made it through to August 1945 and liberation. They counted their blessings when they heard the horrors that had been suffered in other Japanese prison camps. The leadership of men like Dr Selwyn Clarke was key in negotiating what they obtained from their captors.
When food started coming in, internees at first found they had no appetite, and they gave it away to the Chinese. It was only a very gradual return to normality.
The Nances separated at this point, with Beth and the children returning to the States and Ancil staying on; both had their goal of China still in view. After heart-breaking goodbyes, Ancil worked for the Hong Kong government in the godown (warehouse) department, returning property stolen by the Japanese to its rightful owners. He became well acquainted with the transportation system in and out of Hong Kong of ships, trains and planes, and in his second year there, he was able to help missionaries passing through on their way to China, with matters to do with hiring coolies, getting visas, moving freight, and booking train/boat passages. He even managed to travel into China and visit their intended city of Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province.
In 1948 the family was reunited in Hong Kong and with a long list of equipment finally made it to Kunming. Beth’s sister Marjorie and husband James were already there with another agency. The Nances took on an English mission to high school students. All services were conducted in English and this attracted those who wanted to learn the language. They also took on a school for deaf, mute and blind children.
Beth passed her first year exams in Chinese with the CIM in the first six months and it was all looking very promising, but in 1949the Communists gained ascendancy in China and it was time for missionaries to come home. They returned to Ancil’s mother’s house in Vancouver WA in January 1950.
Ancil had a lot of catching up to do with family as he had been gone 10 years, but he was a phenomenal letter writer and he applied himself accordingly. In terms of marketable skills back home he was 10 years behind, but Beth felt he was 20 years ahead in creativity. He invented the bungee cord using all sizes of tyre inner tubes, toys for the children and gadgets for the home. He made props for Beth for her teaching, for dramas and plays. He earned income through carpentry and tree pruning.
After he retired, he remained active and enjoyed gardening, reading and music. His children loved opera because they had grown up listening to it. He loved people and enjoying talking. The Nances were hospitable and had an open home, and loved entertaining people. Consequently they had many friends.
Ancil Nance lived to the ripe age of 96 and died peacefully in his sleep in 1999. Beth Nance, being some 14 years younger, survived her husband by 14 years.
*The Hattori Memorandum of 1943 records 2 sewing machines. (Hong Kong Internment - Geoffrey C Emerson)
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Beth Nance on Ancil Nance
Ancil Benjamin Nance was born in c1903 and was the eldest of 10 children. His father was an unschooled farmer in California, cultivating on ‘Fresno hardpan’, a naturally impervious rock layer varying from 6 inches to 6 feet beneath the surface. Because father was ill, Ancil was unable to complete High School, but rather took on the farm in order to support his family. With that and a background of the Great Depression, he grew up with skills with meagre resources that would benefit his family and others significantly in later life.
He met Beth Kennington through her church in Portland, Oregon, and when she started at the Western Theological Seminary in 1937, he performed a much-needed service by driving her to and from classes. One thing that attracted Beth to him was that he was a great Bible student. They became engaged and married in 1939 without finishing their courses at the seminary, and sailed for China at the end of that year. Beth was expecting but they both had a heart to serve the Yunnan tribes there.
For the fuller family picture of their lives see Beth Nance’s page which is taken from her book ‘My Life’. There is enough information on the two of them to render repetition here de trop.
They paused in Hong Kong after their arrival in 1940, awaiting funding for the final leg to China, but the looming war with Japan was to keep them there for the next 5 years. They quickly became involved in the Clifts’ Emmanuel Church in Kowloon, worked in the Book Room there, and even boarded with them for a while. The Clifts’ amah was a very useful extra pair of hands with bringing up daughter Winifred, (born 1940). Ancil junior was born in 1941 and Jonathan and Eunice later in Stanley Camp.
Through the church they found other avenues of service. They ran an outreach programme for young people, including British servicemen, and this group helped at the newly opened Fanling Babies’ Home, putting on a memorable Christmas party in December 1940.
In January 1941 the HK Telegraph has Ancil in the Emmanuel Church notices leading a young men's Bible Study Group at 9 Hill Wood Road. This was the Nance's address at that time. In the June edition it has Ancil and Beth leading a weekly young people's group on a Sunday afternoon, and then Beth as the speaker in the Sunday evening service.
The Nances chose not to leave Hong Kong when the government announced evacuation to British subjects, and so were caught up when the Japanese attacked in December 1941. When the time came to go to Stanley Camp in January 42, with the help of the Koeppens and Ancil’s skilful negotiation with the Japanese officer-in-charge, the Nances came away with 24 Carnation Milk boxes of equipment and provisions, two suitcases and even Ancil’s banjo. (The regulation amount was one luggage item per person.) With Ancil’s practical skills and inventive ingenuity, it was all to be of huge value to the family and others in the camp in the times to come. The Nances moved into what had been a bedroom in the ‘American block’ of the prison complex.
Thanks to Ancil’s mechanical skills they were given responsibility for items like a pump organ and the one camp sewing machine*. (Beth used her machine skills to make items of clothing) Ancil used his tools to make items like folding chairs for fellow internees, washing lines from the copious amounts of barbed wire round the camp, and peanut oil lamps.
The Nances refused repatriation a second time in 1942, feeling there was work for them to do still in Stanley Camp.
From an early stage in the internment, food was scarce and there was a realisation of the need for cultivation of any productive land in the confines of the camp. Ancil took soil from less accessible parts of the camp and put a 10 inch layer on the concrete driveway in front of their building, successfully supplementing their diet with what it produced. Others thought it crazy at first, but they didn’t know he had farmed on hardpan.
Dr Clift visited one day with some packets of seeds sent by Chinese friends in Kowloon, knowing that Ancil would make good use of them. Some of it was beet seed, and the crops improved the health of their children and others they shared with.
When sweet potato was on the menu, Ancil approached the kitchens and asked for their share in raw state. He was given two potatoes, which he cut up and planted, and successfully grew. He had noticed that the Chinese fed sweet potato leaves to their pigs, and deduced it should be safe for human consumption as well, and they and fellow internees benefitted. After the war when a doctor back home checked the children’s health, he was astonished how well they were. When Ancil told of the sweet potato leaves, the doctor confirmed that there was more protein in sweet potato leaves than spinach or other green vegetables.
Ancil was also careful not to consume all their produce but to save part for the next season’s planting. This benefitted not just them, but others who just weren’t used to thinking ahead. ‘Ancil’s vegetables were key to our survival,’ wrote Beth.
When flour was provided, with the help of two Maryknoll priests who provided yeast from their mission, Ancil was able to make bread, another skill learned from his upbringing.
So they made it through to August 1945 and liberation. They counted their blessings when they heard the horrors that had been suffered in other Japanese prison camps. The leadership of men like Dr Selwyn Clarke was key in negotiating what they obtained from their captors.
When food started coming in, internees at first found they had no appetite, and they gave it away to the Chinese. It was only a very gradual return to normality.
The Nances separated at this point, with Beth and the children returning to the States and Ancil staying on; both had their goal of China still in view. After heart-breaking goodbyes, Ancil worked for the Hong Kong government in the godown (warehouse) department, returning property stolen by the Japanese to its rightful owners. He became well acquainted with the transportation system in and out of Hong Kong of ships, trains and planes, and in his second year there, he was able to help missionaries passing through on their way to China, with matters to do with hiring coolies, getting visas, moving freight, and booking train/boat passages. He even managed to travel into China and visit their intended city of Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province.
In 1948 the family was reunited in Hong Kong and with a long list of equipment finally made it to Kunming. Beth’s sister Marjorie and husband James were already there with another agency. The Nances took on an English mission to high school students. All services were conducted in English and this attracted those who wanted to learn the language. They also took on a school for deaf, mute and blind children.
Beth passed her first year exams in Chinese with the CIM in the first six months and it was all looking very promising, but in 1949 the Communists gained ascendancy in China and it was time for missionaries to come home. They returned to Ancil’s mother’s house in Vancouver WA in January 1950.
Ancil had a lot of catching up to do with family as he had been gone 10 years, but he was a phenomenal letter writer and he applied himself accordingly. In terms of marketable skills back home he was 10 years behind, but Beth felt he was 20 years ahead in creativity. He invented the bungee cord using all sizes of tyre inner tubes, toys for the children and gadgets for the home. He made props for Beth for her teaching, for dramas and plays. He earned income through carpentry and tree pruning.
After he retired, he remained active and enjoyed gardening, reading and music. His children loved opera because they had grown up listening to it. He loved people and enjoying talking. The Nances were hospitable and had an open home, and loved entertaining people. Consequently they had many friends.
Ancil Nance lived to the ripe age of 96 and died peacefully in his sleep in 1999. Beth Nance, being some 14 years younger, survived her husband by 14 years.
*The Hattori Memorandum of 1943 records 2 sewing machines. (Hong Kong Internment - Geoffrey C Emerson)
Source: My Life by Elizabeth Nance