Grace James was a BCMS missionary who married another BCMS missionary and served in China from 1933.
Grace was born in Worthing, Sussex in January 1909, the youngest of nine children born to Alfred and Sarah James. Her father Alfred was a watchmaker, repairer and dealer.
At the time of the 1911 census they lived at 16 The Broadway, Worthing, Sussex.
The 1921 census finds them at the same address. Grace was 12 and attending school.
Grace James felt a call to the mission field and trained in Bristol (possibly 1931-33) with the Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society, going on to serve with them from 1933.
In October 1933, aged 24, she went out to Hong Kong on the Ranchi with missionary colleague Miss Edith Loudwell (31) to help Mildred Dibden and Barbara Lomas at the BCMS Children’s Home at the White House, Taipo.
In 1934 the Home was under Miss Dibden (29), Miss Lomas (25), Miss Loudwell (32), and Miss James (25). Some of the older girls were old enough to be sent out as teachers and nurses to other stations.
In February 1938 Grace James came home on furlough to Worthing, (105 Westcourt Road), returning to Hong Kong in October of that year, aged 29.
Grace was an excellent teacher and for a while (1938?) she became Vice-Principal of Dalton House, the BCMS Training College for Women in Bristol. When because of the war, Dalton House was taken over by the men, (their college at Clifton had been taken over by the military), the few women still training moved to a smaller house in Oakfield Road (Jan 41). They continued here until July 1942, when the last student completed her training.
In the late 1930s Grace married Rev Richard J Mulrenan, another BCMS missionary, and served with him in Kwangan, Szechuan in West China. In 1940 during the bombing of Kwangan in the Civil War, they narrowly escaped death. They were temporarily moved to Kwanyinko for their safety, where two daughters were born, Sylvia 1941 and Margaret in 1942. They spent 1943 heading up the church work in Kwanyinko.
They left on furlough in 1944, to live at 18 Percival Road, Clifton, England. They returned to Kwangan in January 1947. They had 3 daughters by now, Sylvia (5), Margaret(4) and Sally(1).
I imagine they left China in 1949 along with the great exodus of missionaries at that time and went to Hong Kong, because in January 1951 they are recorded as returning from Hong Kong to London, now with two sons (Peter & Andrew) and three daughters, apparently under the auspices of the China Inland Mission. Grace was 41 and Richard 38.
They came back from China to a parish in the UK where they remained.
In 1957 Richard was vicar of St Clements, Poole through to 1966.
From 1966 to 1968 he was vicar of St Michael’s, Braintree. He revived an idea to rebuild a daughter church, St Paul’s. The funds were raised in his time but the building didn’t start until after he had left.
Richard Mulrenan died in December 1998 in Wokingham, Berkshire, England.
Grace Mulrenan died the following year in August 1999 aged 90, in Wokingham, Berkshire.
Sources:
The First 25 Years of the BCMS
The Yip Family of Amah Rock by Jill Doggett
The History of St Paul’s, Braintree.
Ancestry.
Photos that show this Person
