Constance Anderson in Foochow

John and Jennifer Anderson will be visiting Xiamen and Fuzhou from October 1st to 30th,2008, to learn more about his roots (he was born in Hope Hospital, Xiamen).

Here is a description (written by Jennifer) of Connie's work. If anyone has more info on Constance, please send it to me, and I will forward it to the Andersons (photos are welcome too).

Constance Anderson

An English Medical Missionary in Fuzhou (1925-1936)
(provided by Jennifer Anderson)

Constance Mary Hopkinson (Sister Hopkinson or Miss Hopkinson), was

born at Tunbridge Wells, England, in 1895. She was a missionary nurse

in Fuzhou between 1925 and 1936 with the CMS (Church Missionary

Society). The information presented here is from her diaries

supplemented by family tradition.

She worked mainly at a hospital called Cha-Cang, which also had the

name Christ’s Hospital. It was not far from the North Gate. Her

supervisor at the Hospital was Miss Margaret Baldwin, who had been a

missionary nurse in Fuzhou since 1901. The CMS had a number of

hospitals, Dragon Hill Hospital, one near the South Gate, and another

on the island of Nantai, which is where many of the foreign

missionaries were located. The CMS ran a number of schools on Nantai

as well as the Anglo-Chinese Girls’ School, also near the South Gate.

The Cha-Cang Hospital treated both paying and nonpaying patients and

also trained nurses. It consisted of separate hospital buildings for

men and women, a tuberculosis ward, and an out-patient department.

There was a chapel and houses for the hospital staff, including the

nurses, to live in. These buildings were all in a gated compound.

Nearby was a school for Blind children. Outside the West Gate there

was a leper settlement where the missionaries visited and provided

some care.

Cha-Cang Hospital was looted on January 16, 1927. Therefore we do not

have the diaries for Connie’s first two years in China. After the

period of unrest in late December of 1926 and early 1927 the

missionaries left the city and did not return until 1928. During this

time the hospital at Cha-Cang was run by the Chinese staff alone.

When Miss Baldwin returned she worked on rebuilding the missionary

work as well as completing the building of new hospital buildings

that was not quite finished in early 1927. Because of these events

most of the information we have about Connie’s work in Fuzhou is

from 1930-1934.

In this period at Cha-Cang she worked with Dr Nga, Dr Ding and Dr

Lau, and two nursing sisters, Sister Chai and Sister Lau. Among the

missionaries at the hospital Sister Giles, Dr Matthews and Dr Callum,

as well as Dr Webster, and later Miss Webster who did nursing work.

Student nurses were trained there, and Miss Hopkinson mentions

teaching and conducting examinations, as well as graduation

ceremonies. She also mentioned two Chinese Pastors, Pastor Do and

Pastor Uong with whom the missionaries at Cha-Cang worked closely.

Most of the years that Constance Hopkinson was in China, she went to

the mountain resort of Kuliang for a summer holiday, along with

missionaries from other parts of China. There, in August 1936, she

met Peter Anderson, from the English Presbyterian Mission in Amoy/ Kulangsu. They were married Nov 10, 1936 in British Episcopal Church

on Nantai Island and she went to live on Kulangsu with him.

Link: The Amoy Mission