Vyvyan Henry DONNITHORNE [1886-1968]

Vyvyan Henry Donnithorne (Archdeacon) was a Church-of-England missionary, who served in China with his wife for his working life, before retiring to Hong Kong.

Born in London in 1886, he had an older brother and three sisters.  The census of 1891 is very revealing.  Vyvyan is aged 4, the family is living at Colne Lodge, Staines Rd, Twickenham, a very large detached property housing 13 people. Father Edward is a colonel in the Army Reserve (Scots Greys), a Justice of the Peace and a Manufacturer of Engines, and clearly comfortably off with five children and six servants - viz a ladysmaid, housemaid, nurse, nursemaid, cook and kitchen-maid!  That wasn't to last though.

The 1901 census wouldn’t come up for Vyvyan Donnithorne but after some searching it was found under ‘Vyorgan Henry Donnishorne’!   This is interesting because it finds him as a scholar, age 15, boarding at Christ’s Hospital, a school founded in the 16^th century in Christchurch, London.  It had about 500 pupils (who all had to be entered on the census, full names, along with age and place of birth!).  A benefactor had paid for Vyvyan to have a scholarship here as Vyvyan’s father had gone bankrupt.  

Young Donnithorne finished his school life in Horsham as the ‘Hospital’ moved to Horsham the following year (1902), to a far larger site surrounded by green space with room to expand.  He had to leave at age 16 though, when his scholarship ended, but he was a bright young man, and built on the solid foundation he had been given. 

Leaving school in 1902, he studied at the University of London College of Engineering, 1902-1905, became an engineer and at some point switched from mechanical engineering to electrical engineering.  He then sought a job to assist with the family finances and found a position in London as technical manager for a company manufacturing X-ray apparatus for hospitals all over the UK. His career path looked set.

However in 1909, when he was aged 23, he found himself in Keswick during the annual Convention and through conversations with evangelical Christians there and reading the Gospels for himself, came to a real faith of his own.  Within a fortnight of his conversion, he discovered and joined the Cambridge University Mission to Bermondsey, establishing Christian boys' clubs in the darkest slums of London's east end.  He worked there in his spare time over the next three years, during which time his heart began drawing him to the mission field, and China in particular.

The 1911 census finds a very much reduced Donnithorne family at 2 Belvedere Grove, Wimbledon, a very large semi-detached property, but sans father Edward, who died in 1906.  It’s just mother Harriette Donnithorne as head, with Vyvyan, an Electrical Engineer and Employer, his sister Edith, and one domestic.

With China in his sights, Vyvyan used a family bequest to fund a degree (the Chinese Tripos) at Clare College, Cambridge, being the first person to take this course, and he graduated in 1914 with a First Class degree.  

He joined the Church Missionary Society, but then because of the War, he enlisted in the army.  When they found out he was a Cambridge graduate, they took him out of the ordinary ranks and sent him to officer training school. However, he sustained a severe leg wound at Loos, France in January 1916.  He received the Military Cross for his courage, but it ended his military career.

While he was recuperating back home in Twickenham, London, he was visited by Gladys Ingram, whose family lived close by.  The two became close, Vyvyan proposed, Gladys accepted, and they became engaged.  The couple were then separated for the next 3 years as Gladys went out to Egypt to work with Oswald Chambers in the YMCA at Zeitoun.  Vyvyan returned to Cambridge for post-graduate study in 1919, studying theology for a year at Ridley Hall.

Gladys returned from Egypt that year and they married in September.  Also in that year Vyvyan was ordained and in November they went out with the CMS on the Empress of France to Szechuan Province in China, aged 33 and 28. After two years of language study, Vyvyan was appointed to pioneer evangelistic work not only in the frontier city of Anhsien, but also seven other outstations, each with a church and Chinese pastor.  In addition, a visit had to be paid once a year to the furthest outstation of Mowchow on the China Tibet border.  The work involved a lot of walking on his mended leg, there being no transport, but the happy outcome was a fully restored left leg.

In 1922 their one daughter Audrey was born in Santai, Szechuan.

In 1925 following the Shanghai incident there were anti-British uprisings in China and they were captured by Red Lantern bandits with 6 other missionaries for 3 weeks before being ransomed and rescued.

In 1927 they were back in England on furlough.

In July 1935 they were again on a year's furlough in England.  That year Vyvyan was appointed to be Archdeacon of the Anglican Diocese of West Szechuan.  Daughter Audrey says that also on offer at the time was a parish in Falmouth, which she feels her father might well have preferred in his home county of Cornwall, but her mother, missionary through and through, had strongly opposed it.  In Szechuan along with a group of keen workers they conducted tent meetings, which lasted all day, 'and many were brought into the church by this means.'  Mrs Donnithorne did 'splendid work' among the women of the Diocese and in helping her husband in the conducting of Bible Schools.  Although they were engaged primarily in rural evangelism, 'they gave themselves wholeheartedly to parochial work . . . and the welfare of the Christian congregations.'*

During WWII the Donnithornes returned to England (1943-45) but then went back to Szechuan Province to base themselves in Beipei for the next few years.

In 1946 they left the CMS and formed their own group of like-minded missionary friends called The West China Evangelistic Band. The CMS accepted his resignation 'with regret' but were 'very grateful and deeply indebted' for his and Mrs Donnithorne's 22 years of service.

In 1949 when the Communists took over Szechuan Province, Vyvyan had just returned to England on his own, and had to wait two years for Gladys to be released from custody, deported to Hong Kong, and return to England in 1951.  

She then joined him in his final posting as pastor of a church in the Canary Isles until 1952 when he and Gladys retired to Hong Kong. They lived in a flat in Kowloon Tong, and their church was St Andrews, Kowloon.

In Hong Kong, ‘advancing years did not deter them’ from lives of service and good works.  They gave assistance to refugees from China and gave support and assistance to the Shatin Babies' Home, (they were known as Uncle and Auntie Donny), serving the Home as Advisory Friends.

When Audrey visited Hong Kong in 1967 she felt her father was feeling the weight of his years, whereas her mother remained busily active.  In December 1968 Vyvyan suffered a bad stroke, not his first, and he was admitted to the Matilda Hospital on the Peak, which offered free treatment for missionaries.  He died that same month, aged 82.

Archdeacon Donnithorne was buried in the Hong Kong Cemetery.  Gladys remained busy until her death in 1977, and she was buried with him.

*Quotes from the CMS letter to the Donnithornes on their resignation in 1946.

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Sources: Wikipedia;      MichelleUle.com

China in Life's Foreground - Audrey Donnithorne

The Yip Family of Amah Rock - Jill Doggett

Ancestry.co.uk