Diary, 1914-1943, undated

Rev. Andrew Gordon Wilson was an architect and ordained at the Presbyterian Church in Woomelang, Victoria, Australia in 1934. In 1907, Rev. Wilson, being a missionary of the New Zealand Presbyterian Mission, was sent to Guangzhou (Canton), China to worked as the Business Manager of the Medical Missionary Society’s Hospital (Canton Hospital) 博濟醫局. Later in 1914, he became the Clerk of Works and Building Supervisor of Canton Villages Mission to oversee the design, construction and maintenance of the new Mission Hospital called Kong Chuen Hospital (also known as Kong Chuen Canton Hospital) 江村普惠醫院, residences and the Girls School in Jiangcun 江村 (Kong Chuen), Guangzhou (Canton). In 1919, he became the Building Supervisor and Mission Treasurer of Kong Chuen Hospital and Girls school.

Rev. Wilson stationed in Guangzhou (Canton) for almost two decades and he wrote about his work and life in Guangzhou in his Poetry books (folder1-2) and outgoing correspondence and diaries. For instance, he described his quarter provided by Messrs Purnell & Paget in 1908, his wife going to Guangzhou (Canton) for their wedding on February 29, 1910 and his trip to Pok Lo on the Pearl River with maps and pictures in some Correspondence to his family (folder 1-7). In his Diary (folder 1-8), written in a 1924 almanac published by the China Baptist Publication Society, he recorded the progress of the Kong Chuen Hospital and schools project. This almanac also contains directories of missionaries, missionary societies, mission schools and committees in southern China and Hong Kong. A black Diary book in folder 1-8 contains entries for July-August 1914 during his voyage from Australia to China aboard the SS Tango Maru, as well as records of different jobs with budgets, staff duty, amount of materials e.g. steel and cement used in different projects in 1941-43 when he was the controller of materials in the Northern Territory, Australia. Rev. Wilson’s work in China was successful. Appreciation to his work was documented in a January 3, 1910 letter written by John M. Swan, the Medical Superintendent of Canton Hospital (folder 1-4) and a Chinese letter written on silk (OS 22).

Rev. Wilson collected some Newspaper clippings (folders 1-11 to 1-13) from the Canton Times, South China Morning Post and Outlook spanning the period 1917-1938, as well as some Australian newspapers such as Herald, Woomelang and Argus from 1932 to 1941. Most of the clippings are related to missionaries, China and Guangdong during World War I, warlords fighting years, Japanese attack in the late 1930s and World War II. Folder 1-12 also contains Rev. Wilson’s birth certificate and his annual report in the capacity of the clerk of works and building supervisor for the Canton Villages and Kong Tsuen project. Other documents related to World War I (folder 1-14) include a broadsheet of Canton War Investments Association about war loan and a journal entitled Chen Hua (Vol. II, no. 12, November, 1918). The conditions in China, particularly in Jiangcun 江村 (Kong Chuen), Guangdong and Hong Kong from 1912 to 1950 were also recorded in the Republic of China file (folder 1-14) and some incoming Correspondence (folder 1-5). A printed pamphlet in folder 1-14 entitled ‘Did Marshall Feng Act Rightly?’ discussed Marshall Feng’s 馮玉祥 Christian Army in the Peking ‘coup d’état’. Incoming correspondence (folder 1-5) from Rev. Wilson’s friends e.g. Dr. Avis P. Thomson mentioned about Lingnan University, hospitals and schools in Jiangcun, Guangdong and Hong Kong under the Japanese attack and occupation from the 1930s to 1940s. A letter dated March 17, 1950 mentioned about the impact of the communist soldiers in Jiangcun.

Rev. Wilson had used several legal documents to stay and work in China. OS 21 is his oversize Passport printed in Chinese. Other Legal documents (folder 1-10) include a 1924 ‘Strike Temporary Pass’ issued by the Shameen Municipal Councils; some certificates of registration as a missionary and British subject issued by the British Consulate between 1910 and1916, one of these certificates has a photograph of the Wilson family. Another document is his handwritten English translation of a deed of perpetual lease between Messrs Shewan Tomes & Co. and Chang Shan Tang, dated December, 1902.

There are some interesting materials in the collection. The Chinese pamphlets and notice file (folder 1-3) include a Cantonese opera program 高陞戲園人壽年劇團粵劇劇刊 and a 1925 printed manifesto of a general labour union in Hong Kong 香港工業維持會宣言. Folder 1-4 contains some commercial trade cards advertising businesses in Canton, Swatow and Shaghai together with 5 personal cards and cards with New Testament passages; and folder 1-7 contains a letter written by Rev. Wilson on wooden paper.

Geographic coverage

China, Hong Kong and Australia

Types of documents

Articles, books, newspaper clippings, correspondence, diary, legal documents, journal, manuscripts, pamphlets, photographs