grave post - Margaret H Brown

From this simple stone with the intriguing description 'Missionary in China' I learned that Margaret H Brown (1887-1978) had a distinguished teaching, writing, and publishing career in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and West China. She was born in rural Tiverton, Ontario and was a teacher there for about four years before moving to China to teach within the Presbyterian Church of Canada. From1916 to 1929 she lived and taught in Henan Province until she was appointed to the staff of the Christian Literature Society Shanghai and worked there as an editor. During her time there she published a number of books in Chinese, including Stories of Jesus and Mrs Wang's Diary which was published in English in 1936 (and is available at Amazon, for a steep price)


There was very little personal information on her which makes me think she was very much a career woman. Although Miss Brown retired in 1956, and was possibly back in Canada since the missionaries were sent packing after the Communists took over, she devoted her time to researching and writing, publishing an account of the life and work of the Canadian Presbyterian missionary and editor of the Christian Literature Society, Donald MacGillivray. MacGillvray was a prolific scholar and writer, translator and editor, who wrote a popular dictionary, A Mandarin-Romanized Dictionary of Chinese in 1907.

Taphophile Tragics