Lila Watson Papers
Scope and Contents
Correspondence contains letters of Lila Watson with other field workers such as Mary Alexander, W B Johnson and W.H. Tipton, and also other affiliated organizations and committees. Some letters were forwarded to her for reports and planning, showed the difficult time of Baptist workers facing the financial difficulties, the threat of war and Japanese occupation of China. Folder 2 contains letters, reports and information gathered from various meetings and development of Baptist organizations to be used as program material for the China Baptist Young People's Missionary Organization (基督教中華浸會少年團聯會).
- Geographic coverage
- China
- Types of documents
- Articles and correspondence
Dates
- 1929-1949, undated
Restriction
Anyone using this collection must sign an Agreement to use the Lila Watson Papers. Photocopying of unpublished material prohibited.
Biography
- Full name
- Watson, Lila Florence (吳立樂)
- Birth date
- February 5, 1892 in South Carolina, United States.
Lila F. Watson was appointed as Southern Baptist Missionary to China in 1919 and worked for 39 years. She directed a good will center for two years, then spent another seven years in evangelism in China. She was the field secretary of Woman’s Missionary Union, Executive secretary of the China Baptist Young People’s Missionary Organization and editor for the China Baptist Publication Society in Shanghai during 1929-1949. She wrote articles about Baptist history and biographies of Baptist missionaries such as Grace McBride and Dr. Theron Rankin (see RG.5 Baptist Press Collection). In 1936, the hundredth year’s celebration of Baptist works in China, she was the chief editor of the Baptist history book: 浸會在華佈道百年史略Brief historical sketches of Baptist missions in China (Shanghai: China Baptist Publication, 1936). She was a religious education worker until 1953 and then a Baptist Press editor until her retirement. She returned to the US and still worked for the Baptist Church until she died on September 17, 1980, at the age of 88.
Education
- 1913
- South Carolina (now part of University of South Carolina)
- Bachelor of Arts, College for Women
- 1919
- Carver School (now part of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)
- Bachelor of Religious Education
Career
- 1913-1917
- Schoolteacher in South Carolina
- 1919
- Appointed as Southern Baptist missionary
- 1919-1920
- Language student, Peking (Beijing), China
- 1920-1922
- Director, Baptist good will center, Hwanghsien 黃縣 (Longkou, Shandong)
- 1922-1929
- Evangelistic worker, Tsining 集寧, (Jining), Inner Mongolia
- 1929-1949
- Woman’s Missionary Union field secretary
- Executive Secretary of China Baptist Young People’s Missionary Organization
- Editor, China Baptist Publication Society中華浸會書局, Shanghai
- 1949
- Young People’s worker, Taiwan
- 1950-1953
- Religious educational worker, Hong Kong
- 1953-1958
- Secretary, Missionary Education, Baptist Press, Hong Kong
- 1958
- Retired
- 1958-1968
- Worker with foreign students, DeLand, Florida, US
- 1968-1969
- Missionary educated worker, Dillon, South Carolina, US
Extent
0.03 Linear Feet (2 folders)
Language of Materials
English
Sources Used
Southern Baptist Convention. (1971). Missionary album. Richmond, VA: Foreign Mission Board, S.B.C.
- Date
- September 30, 2020
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the HKBU Special Collections Repository
Special Collections & Archives
AML 405, L4, Au Shue Hung Memorial Library,
Hong Kong Baptist University
34 Renfrew Road, Kowloon Tong
(852) 3411-5937
libarc@hkbu.edu.hk