Mather, Percy Cunningham

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0102 CIM/PP 6-13
Held at	: School of Oriental and African Studies   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.soas.ac.uk/Archives/home.html ›
Full 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 & 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.

Finding aids:

Database and unpublished handlist.

Archival Information

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

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

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