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School of Oriental and African Studies

Mather, Percy Cunningham


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0102 CIM/PP 6-13

Held at: School of Oriental and African Studies

Title: Mather, Percy Cunningham

Date(s): 1911-1938

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 0.5 box

Name of creator(s): Mather | Percy Cunningham | 1884-1933 | missionary

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born in Fleetwood, England, 1884; employed by the railways; converted to Wesleyan Methodism, 1903; became a Sunday school teacher and local preacher; applied to join the China Inland Mission, 1908; pioneering missionary to central Asia; sailed to Shanghai, China, 1910; moved upriver to Anking (Anqing) language school; proceeded to Ningkwo (Ningguo) in Anhwei (Anhui) province, 1911; influenced by Roland Allen's Missionary Methods: St Paul's or Ours? (1912) and volunteered to join George Hunter (1861-1946) among the Islamic peoples of Urumchi (Urumqi), Chinese Turkestan (later Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region) and arrived, 1914; with Hunter, itinerated in Outer Mongolia among Mongol tribes and Chinese traders and border settlers, 1914-1926; pursued intensive medical studies on furlough, 1927; subsequently concentrated on medical work and on translations, grammars, and dictionaries of Mongolian languages; to Kashgar, 1928; became involved in hostilities in China and was accused of political intrigue; died of typhus during the siege of Urumchi, 1933. Publication: letters published as The Making of a Pioneer: Percy Mather of Central Asia, ed Alice Mildred Cable and Francesca Law French (1935).

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers, 1911-1938, of and relating to Percy Cunningham Mather, comprising letters to Mather from various correspondents, 1911-1931; letters of condolence on his death, 1933; letters from Mather, 1911-1933, largely to his sister Edith, including his experiences in China; typescript letters from Mather in Chuguchak (Tacheng), Sinkiang (Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu), to prayer companions, 1930-1932, describing his impressions and activities; six journals, 1911-1917, recording his activities; articles by Mather in Young China, 1928-1929; articles on Mather's life, 1933, 1938 and undated.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Unrestricted. Readers should order the documents as CIM box 2 in SOAS Special Collections Reading Room.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to archivist in the first instance.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

Database and unpublished handlist.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

The papers form part of the series of personal and private papers of individual missionaries among the records of the China Inland Mission.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Donated with the records of the China Inland Mission from 1991.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

The School of Oriental and African Studies holds the records of the China Inland Mission (Ref: CIM). SOAS also holds press cuttings of the Conference of British Missionary Societies relating to Mather's death in China, 1933 (Ref: CBMS/H/PB23/88).

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project. Sources: Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed Gerald H Anderson (1998); A J Broomhall, It is not Death to Die! (1989), vol vii of Hudson Taylor and China's Open Century, p 671; British Library OPAC.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: Mar 2002


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Asian cultures | National cultures
Diaries | Nonfiction | Prose | Literary forms and genres | Literature
Evangelistic missionaries | Missionaries | Religious groups
Evangelistic missionary work | Missionary work | Religious activities
Medical missionaries | Missionaries | Religious groups
Medical missionary work | Missionary work | Religious activities
Methodism | Protestant nonconformity | Protestantism | Christianity | Ancient religions | Religions
Methodists | Protestant nonconformists | Protestants | Christians | Religious groups
Religious movements | Religious institutions
Travel abroad | Travel
Nonconformists
Nonconformity
Primary documents

Personal names
Mather | Edith | fl 1911-1933 | sister of the missionary Percy Cunningham Mather
Mather | Percy Cunningham | 1884-1933 | missionary

Corporate names
China Inland Mission

Places
Tacheng | Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu | China | East Asia
Chuguchak x Tacheng
Sinkiang x Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu