Arthur Ernest PEILL [1915-1955]

I would love to hear from anyone with knowledge of my Dad or his family. Please contact me via Gwulo.

Here is the "In Memoriam" that Bishop Hall wrote after my father died:

IN MEMORIAM

Arthur Peill, Lay Missionary, 1937-1941

by Bishop Hall, Hong Kong

FRAGRANT STREAM, Dec, 1955

It was a great shock to those of us who knew and loved Arthur Peill to hear of his death in his sleep early in January of this year. And yet, apart from our grief for those who loved him, we cound not resist a feeling of gratitude to God that he had been allowed to lay down so soon the burden of this life. For Arthur was a Crusader who never had any luck - if it is fair to say of Crusaders that, when they succeed, it is generally more by good luck than good management.

Arthur's grandfather, his father and three uncles and at least one cousin were missionaries of the London Missionary Society in North China.

In the first Chinese hospital I ever visited , in Shantung in 1922, I saw the famous "Peill Script" in action, a system of phonetics by which the average countrymen who spent a few weeks in hospital could read simple texts and Bible messages. It was my first experience also of Occupational Therapy. I was told that interest in this new learning was nearly always a considerable factor in the patients's rapid recovery of health.

It is perhaps bad luck to be born into a famous missionary family, if you are born with a totally different equipment, physical, intellectual and temperamental, from your missionary forebears and relatives.

When I first met Arthur, he was a London Policeman who had already done farming in Canada, and, though not yet 21 was in some ways, but not in all by any means, as mature as a 30 year old. He was determined in spite of this lack of the Peill academic abilities, to be a missionary, perhaps so that he would just show them all, including his own obstinate self, that he was as good a Peill as any of them.

Canon Wittenbach s then engaged in Rural Reconstruction in the Chinese Christian Villages near Canton:  and C.M.S. sent Arthur Peill out to be his apprentice assistant. It was alreay 1937 when he reached Canton. So after a few months of language study and acting Warden of our little hostel in Lingnan University, Arthur found himself with Victor Halward dashing out in front of Japanese tanks to carry wounded folk to our tempary hospital on the outskirts of Canton;  and then in charge of a tousand refugees in the Sun yat Sen Memorial School. He showed great courage on the day when the Camp was surrounded by a Japanese battaliion who suddenly charged in upon the frightened refugees. Arthur stood his full six-foot-six height completely unmoved;  and by his calm courage prevented any panic, with the result that there were no casualties and no arrests.

Soon after, Arthur went back to enlist in the Air Force and was in the RAF fighter defence of the South Coast of England in the last year of the war;  then back to Hong Kong with his wife and daughter, first in the Civil Service, and then with the Dairy Farm in Pokfulam.

I shall never forget his great body kneeling humbly beside some Chinese School boys when he was confirmed in Canton. Christ Church Kowloon Tong, found his a devoted Church member and Church Councillor. But, even when in 1952 he returned for his family's sake to England, he could not find the niche he hoped for. After a spell of farming and a go at selling Insurance, he was back in Service with the RAF when his "Home-call" came. Those old words are most appropriate to describe the ending of his crusading here on earth and the beginning of that 'so much more' that our Lord surely has ready for him on the other side.