Winifred Stubbs was born in England in 1885, daughter of a Presbyterian minister, Rev Frederick Stubbs.
They moved to New Zealand in 1895.
She trained as a missionary nurse to serve with the Canton Villages Mission in China. She arrived at Canton to be a Nurse at the Ko T'ong Hospital in November 1913. There she met with Dr Edward Kirk, who was also serving with the CVM. They became engaged.
In April 1918 they were married in Toronto, Canada, and they returned to Canton together to continue serving.
In 1928 they left the mission and moved to Hong Kong for a government job there.
Just before the Japanese invasion, only about a month, Winifred and the four children were repatriated to Toronto, Canada as War Guests (here). After the invasion, Dr Kirk was captured and interned in Stanley Camp, where he gave sterling service.
After the War, Winifred and the children moved to London.
Winifred Kirk died in London 1957.
Source: Presbyterian Research Centre NZ – Register of Ministers
Comments
Winnie Kirk
She and her children evacuated from Hong Kong - initially on a boat to Australia which turned around mid-voyage back to Hong Kong. They finally departed to stay with Toronto friends about a month before the Japanese arrived. E W Kirk stayed to guard the house and was taken prisoner. Of the four children, Mary,, David, Gordon and my mother Elizabeth, only David went the full trip to London for medical school. Mary attended the University of Toronto, graduating BA, Gordon graduated from the University School, Toronto and went on to study medicine in the UK. At wars end, all the family reunited in the UK but both parents were particularly affected by all the chaos of the war years. My mother finished her secondary school in Edinburgh. Then she attended a swank secretarial school to land a job in Clement Atlee's secretarial pool at No. 10. Winifred Mary Kirk née Stubbs died at 72. Her husband Edward remarried and died a few years later at 76.
Mary married a New Zealander and went there to raise ten kids. David married, had a family, and practiced medicine for the rest of his life in the UK. Gordon never finished medical school due to chronic illness. He died in his early 50s. Mum married a medical student and immigrated to Canada in 1955 where they raised me and my two sisters, Winnie and Veronica.
Edward Alexander Cooper, CD, MD
Major (ret) RCMC
Veteran of the Bosnia and Afghanistan wars.