Winifred Ashby was born in November 1876. Her father was an oil merchant who died in 1881 but he left the family comfortably off and able to live on their own means in a large house with three servants.
Winifred married Harry Lechmere Clift in 1901, on the completion of his medical training in Edinburgh. The census of that year finds him living in the Ashby home in Carlisle as a visitor in March prior to his marriage in October. For their life story and a dateline, see under Harry Lechmere Clift.
After starting in China with the CMS briefly, theirs was very much a pioneering missionary work in Nanning, China, then with the BCMS from 1924-30 and latterly with a medical practice and a church in Hong Kong from 1930.
From their early days in Kuei Lin, Guangxi Province (1906), Winifred provided invaluable assistance to her husband in the Medical Centres they started, interviewing patients as they arrived, assessing their ability to pay, and weeding out scroungers; also helping in operations, or as a chaperone, or indeed conducting consultations in cases where women were not happy seeing a male doctor. With those patients she would put questions given by Dr Clift. She would also make up prescriptions written by him. When he was ill and unable to see patients, Mr Child, their host, would interview the male patients, and Winifred the female, reporting symptoms back to 'H' (as she called him, he called her Win), and following his directions. There was no lack of work to do. By their expertise and hard work the Clifts overcame the innate resistance to 'foreign medicine' that was felt by the local population.
To speed up their integration and acceptance they both dressed in Chinese fashion. Winifred writes, 'My foreign ways interested them immensely. The fact that I brushed my hair every day was a great amusement. They will leave their elaborate chignons (coil of hair at the back of the head) untouched for days, only smoothing stray hairs now and then.'
One high priority item that the Clifts made sure to take with them from the start was a typewriter, which would have been large and cumbersome thing. This shows the importance that they placed on their communication with home, whence came their prayer support and financial backing. From the start Winifred Clift kept a regular flow of letters back to England and also to colleagues and friends on the mission field round the world - 'We get news from Scotby (Cumberland), London, North India, South India, Canada and Ceylon,' she wrote.
From these letters Winifred Clift published two books - Very Far East and Annals of an Isle in the Pacific, describing life as they lived it in Nanning and on Cheung Chau, the location of their holiday home. These and other books she published give a fascinating insight into a fast-disappearing Imperial Dynasty China at the beginning of the 20th century, a China of feuding warlords, of distinctive male and female hairstyles, of elongated nails (which indicated wealth - one didn't have to work), of sedan chairs and rickshaws as the standard taxi service, of idol worship and ancestor worship, and belief in spirits and superstitions and dragons, of the practice of Mui Tsai, and of crippling female foot-binding (also a class thing, indicating one didn't have to work. In fact it rendered one unable to work!). The Chinese also counted time in ten day periods rather than seven day weeks.
During their time in Nanning, the Clifts even started a Foundling Home to take in abandoned babies, mostly girls, who grew to number some 26 infants. Although having no family of their own, they clearly had a heart for children, and could not stand by and tolerate the female infanticide that prevailed at the time. However, managing a medical mission as well as a church and a foundling home was hugely ambitious and when Winifred contracted rheumatic fever in 1923, she had to be moved to Hong Kong. The Clifts applied to join the newly formed BCMS and handed the Medical Mission, (now a Hospital), Church and Foundling Home over to them to manage. This done, they moved to Hong Kong.
Apart from their Medical Centres, the Clifts' other great work was to establish and lead churches, firstly in Kuei Lin and Nanning and later the Emmanuel Mission Church in Kowloon from the 1930s onwards, using the wealth of their missionary experience combined with their leadership and teaching giftings. Winifred would play a baby organ to accompany the hymns sung in the services. In their early years the organ was an object of wonder to local people, who were delighted that this machine could sing with them. Winifred also led a Ladies' Bible Study Group and delivered lectures on Christian topics during the week.
When the Japanese invaded in December 1941, the Clifts were living at 77 Pok Fu Lam Road near the university. Winifred took in a friend Frances Cook with her three children and two domestics. They spent that Christmas in the flat but on the 6th January 1942 they heard that all British and Americans were to report to the Murray Parade Ground. Winifred and Frances (& children) left their domestics and reported. (Dr Clift had been captured on December 23rd at his practice (presumably) in Nathan Road).
There they were assigned to a group of about 150 to be quartered in the Nam Ping Hotel, and given a small room (#415) on the third floor to share with another woman. They received two meals daily, usually rice, sometimes with fish or soup. They were not allowed out but despite the conditions, they felt safer than before and even had moments of hilarity. They were free from the constant fear of being killed and the fear of armed men breaking in.
On January 23rd, they were moved by boat and under guard to Stanley, taking only what they could carry. In Stanley Camp, Winifred was joined by her husband, and was intrepid. The Clifts were in their mid sixties, now with 'senior missionary' status. Once Winifred found her 'camp legs', she continued the same weekly Bible study for women that she had run before the war. To free up any mothers, children and babies were taken care of. Winifred was 'a thorough and inspiring teacher.' (Beth Nance)
However, by the end of the war Jill Doggett writes that Winifred had 'suffered a great deal' and had been 'very sick.' Beth Nance states that the Clifts 'were almost bedfast (confined to bed by illness or age), especially Mrs Clift.' Consequently they were put on the first ship out of Hong Kong for repatriation, 5th September 1945.
Once restored to health they returned to Hong Kong, but Dr Clift died not much later in 1949 aged 73, and Winifred survived him by a further 17 years. She continued her support of Mildred Dibden and her Shatin Babies' Home, as she had done with her Fanling Babies' Home previously, serving as an Advisory Friend of the home, but much more importantly they had a closeness which 'seemed closer to her (Mildred) than uncles and aunts of childhood, than any relative or friends.' (Jill Doggett)
She went back to England but must have realised her home was in Hong Kong, for she returned to live in Pak Sha Wan, Sai Kung, until her own death in 1966, aged 89. She was buried together with her husband in the Hong Kong Cemetery, Happy Valley. Winifred's obituary speaks of 'years of weakness patiently borne', perhaps referring to her years after Harry's death and the after effects of her rheumatic fever of earlier years, which may have left arthritic pain in her joints or damage to her heart. Looking at all that she and her husband achieved and the significant influence they had, one cannot but be impressed.
Their church, The Emmanuel Church, continued and has now grown to six churches and is known today as The Emmanuel English Church, the rest being Cantonese language congregations.
For a picture of Winifred Clift see here. She is front row second from right.
Sources:
The Yip Family of Amah Rock - Jill Doggett;
Very Far East and Annals of a Small Isle in the Pacific by Winifred Clift;
The First 25 Years of the BCMS
My Life - Elizabeth Nance;
When You Were Absent by Frances Cook
Biographical Dictionary of Medical Practitioners, Hong Kong
and moddsey and team Gwulo - thank you.
Photos that show this Person
Comments
Winifred Lechmere Clift obituary notice
Winifred Clift's notice speaks of 'years of weakness patiently borne', perhaps referring to the after effects of her rheumatic fever of earlier years, which may have left arthritic pain in her joints or damage to her heart.
Very Far East (1909)
Very Far East
C Winifred Lechmere Clift
This is essentially a very readable journal of the first two years the Clifts spent at Kuei Lin in Guangxi Province and then latterly in Nanning, when it became the capital. They went out in 1906 to set up a Medical Centre which very quickly built up a patient list, due to the success of their treatment and word of mouth to establish trust in the local population, who were naturally wary of ‘foreign medicine.’
Patients were charged for treatment and drugs but Dr Clift was a generous man and, if funding permitted, did not deny treatment to ‘the few who cannot be turned away and who can’t possibly pay for themselves.’ In the first 4 weeks he saw over 200 patients and received 33 dollars in payment (£3 6s sterling). In cases where local women were unwilling to see a male doctor, Winifred would step in and chaperone or else conduct the consultation herself asking questions given to her by her husband. She also assisted in the work by making up prescriptions written by her husband.
Early on, Dr Clift had a request from the Provincial Governor for his baby grandchild, who was ill with bronchial pneumonia, which he managed to cure; then for his granddaughter, who was cured of bronchitis and dysentery. This greatly increased the general acceptance of the Clifts and their ‘foreign medicine.’
The Clifts went out to China without any knowledge of the Chinese language*, and took lessons after their arrival, which Winifred said sometimes she thoroughly enjoyed and other times she found a chore. In their early years in Pakhoi they learned Cantonese but then had to learn Mandarin when they served in Kuei Lin and Nanning. So they mastered both Cantonese and Mandarin, which seems an admirable achievement. In other matters Chinese they were well versed, and from the outset followed the example of their missionary predecessors in China, and dressed in Chinese dress. This too greatly increased their acceptance and the receptivity of the locals to the gospel message they were so keen to share.
Winifred felt Chinese dress suited her husband very well, being tall and slim, and when he did revert to European dress, ‘H’ (as she calls him) said, ‘English clothes are really barbarous things.’ He felt as if he were wrapped up in stiff paper. ‘Our Chinese garments are loose and cool and altogether more comfortable.’ In later years back in Hong Kong, the Clifts reverted to western dress.
Dr Clift even went so far as to adopt the Chinese hairstyle, having the front of the head shaved every 10 days and sporting a long Manchu braid at the back. This had been compulsory for nationals in the Qing Dynasty but the practice was gradually abandoned in the years after it ended (post 1911).
The early years in Kuei Lin were when the Clifts first began the practice of holding their own Sunday services, as there was literally no one else within 100 miles (or more) of where they were, offering anything of the sort. In the early years when men and women expected to meet separately, Winifred played their baby organ for the women. Dr Clift had to put in a lot of practice to accompany a few hymns for the men. Later on they held joint meetings but with a central dividing curtain in place, and Winifred accompanied.
As local people came to faith, so the Clifts’ little congregation grew, and when they went to Hong Kong in 1930 it must have been a very natural thing to keep church going. And so the Emmanuel Church came into being.
* This may seem strange to us today, where the practice is to learn before going. There can't have been the provision back then. It was certainly happening after the War however. Lucy Clay learned Cantonese at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London before going out to the Fanling Babies' Home in 1948. But then in 1960 when Valerie Conibear joined Mildred Dibden at the Shatin Babies' Home, she learned Cantonese from a Bible woman, Miss Leung, after her arrival.
1907 Changes in Imperial China
“In these days everybody is speaking and writing of the remarkable ‘Awakening in China’ and it is certainly true that changes, which three years ago men spoke of as ‘impossible’, are now coming to pass every day.
Colleges and schools are opened in every city, in many places the temples themselves being turned into schoolhouses. Policemen are seen in the streets; foreign uniforms are taking the place of the scholar’s long gown. Steamers and locomotives, electric lights and other wonders from the West are not any longer unknown objects.”
from Very Far East by Winifred Clift
The Day Joyce Sheet
Cooks - When You Were Absent
The Clifts are mentioned a number of times in the book "When You Were Absent" by Archibald and Frances Wight Cook at: https://online.flippingbook.com/view/269248325/
Frances Cook spends Christmas at the Clifts', 1941
Thanks to moddsey for the link above. Great find! I have summarised this part of Frances Cook's story:
On Saturday the 13th December, the Chief Air Raid Warden advised that it was time for Frances to move from Felix Villas owing to their vulnerability, situated as they were beneath the coastal defence guns on Mount Davis. She contacted her friend and Bible teacher Winifred Lechmere Clift by phone to ask if it was possible to stay with her at her apartment on the top floor of 77 Pok Fu Lam Road near the university. She agreed. Dr Clift managed to secure a Red Cross lorry for half an hour, urging haste, but then an air raid occurred, and they had to wait until it was over. They then travelled at high speed and arrived at Mrs. Clift's flat, Frances still in her dressing gown, and Dr Clift went off to his post*.
Mrs Clift offered Frances her largest room, the sitting room, where services were held on Sundays and Bible Study classes on Saturday evenings. Su Mei, the cook boy's wife, and her three children occupied one end of the room, while Frances and her three children took the other end. Ah Ng, the wash amah, went in with Mrs. Clift's amah, Ah Ching. Ma Lien Ching, the cook, was on warden duty and only returned when off duty. Then he would fill his kit bag with provisions at Felix Villas and carry them the two and a half miles to the Clifts’ property, arriving quite exhausted.
Ah Ng assumed cooking responsibilities, and everyone ate together around a central pot of rice. Rationing was in place, and only Europeans could obtain bread, one loaf at a time, while the Chinese had rice. To get bread, Frances would have had to carry her baby for five miles or leave him behind, which was risky due to bombings and the time it would take. Consequently, her son Clyde went with Mrs. Clift and Mr. Spence**, enjoying the journey and returning with bread.
When the waterworks were hit and put out of action, Ah Ng complained, but Frances reminded her there was no tap water in her native village. Fortunately, a nearby mountain stream allowed Ma Lien Ching and Mrs. Clift's cook to fetch pails of water, enabling them to flush the lavatory and wash the baby's nappies.
A week later, on Saturday the 20th, Frances decided to return to Felix Villas to salvage some papers and property. She went with Ma Lien Ching, Ah Ng and Clyde and got her papers, but they brought back less than they could have as they fully expected to return.
On Sunday morning Mr Spence gave a talk on the 23rd Psalm – The Lord is my Shepherd.
As Christmas approached, they brought a potted Christmas tree in from the garden and the children made paper chain decorations and a star to hang on it. They were able to buy a few things in town, so everyone had a present.
On Christmas morning, they sang "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night" outside Mrs. Clift's bedroom door. Their Christmas dinner included rice, bean curd, salt fish, and for dessert a special treat of a spoonful of mincemeat from a jar brought by Ma Lien Ching from Felix Villas.
That afternoon, there was a long pause in the firing, and later, Ma announced the Colony's surrender to the Japanese. He was in civilian clothes, having been ordered to change by his head Chinese warden. The surrender was hard to believe as the plan had been to fight street by street but the next day they saw the Japanese flag flying from the Peak. In addition, the power station was put out of action as well as telephones and radios.
The roads filled with Japanese soldiers and lorries, along with Chinese looters. From their window, they observed looters at the University’s new science building, some permitted by Japanese gendarmes and others shot for their actions. The looters took the risks. They smashed polished furniture for firewood and took scientific instruments, accompanied by continual gunshots.
For the New Year, the Japanese troops were granted a three-day holiday, during which they were only allowed short swords. Residents were warned to stay indoors with locked doors due to potential drunken misconduct by soldiers. Fortunately, their vicinity remained quiet the first night.
On the second night, they were woken by Japanese soldiers hammering at the iron lattice gate, smashing the ground floor windows with stones. The occupants barricaded the flat's door with heavy furniture and prayed, and the Bible verse came to Frances, ‘I will not forsake thee.’ The gate lock held.
The next day Mrs Clift decided to seek protection from the head Japanese officer, aiming to get a signboard indicating the house was a medical clinic. She was admitted to headquarters, pointed out her house on a map, and the officer contacted the local Japanese soldiers. Although they never received the signboard, they were not disturbed thereafter.
The first Sunday after Christmas, a group of Japanese soldiers visited, one of whom returned off duty in the afternoon. He had missed Christmas and wished to celebrate by singing carols, playing them on the piano, and reading the Christmas story from the Bible. He had a Japanese Testament and prayed in Japanese, revealing he was a student for the ministry and a former organist before being drafted. After a little service Mrs. Clift served tea.
On 6th January 1942 Frances and Winifred responded to an order by the Japanese for British and Americans to assemble at the Murray Parade Ground that afternoon. The story continues here at the Nam Ping Hotel.
*This was his hospital, presumably Nathan Road.
** It's not clear who Mr Spence is.
From While You Were Absent by Archibald & Frances Cook