A History of Kenfig

Kenfig Heritage – History (Kenfig/Margam/Glamorgan) – History – (General – Law & Order/Crimes & Punishment) (Old Newspaper Articles) / 20th Century World Affairs

A Porthcawl Missionary in China (1899-1901)

This article is being produced to honour the memory of a Porthcawl missionary, his wife & their 3 children who were massacred in Tai Yuan, China in 1900 following the result of attacks on mission stations in the provinces of Shansi & Chih-li during the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901) toward the end of the Qing dynasty – the Boxer Rebellion was motivated by proto-nationalist sentiments & by opposition to Western colonialism and the Christian missionary activity that was associated with it.

The list of missionaries associated with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions & members of their families appear on the Memorial Arch in Oberlin, Ohio, US.

RIP Rev. W.T. Beynon, Emily Taylor Beynon & children Daisy, Kenneth, Norman.

South Wales Echo – Tuesday November 20, 1900

Porthcawl Family Murdered

Mr J. Beynon, New Road, Porthcawl received on Monday a letter from the British & Foreign Bible Society confirming the report of the murder of his son, the Rev. William Beynon and wife, with 3 children at Shanghai.

The authority for this confirmation is Consul-General Warren, Shanghai and Mr Bondfield who says that the deed was swift, no torture being inflicted.

Further Particulars

Mr Beynon was an official of the British & Foreign Bible Society and had spent some years in China doing valuable work for the organisation he represented.

He was a Baptist but did not represent the Baptist Missionary Society.

We are informed by the Rev. T.W. Medhurst, Cardiff that the first official intelligence of his death was received by Mr Bayness, the secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society and the terms of the telegram showed that 33 Protestant missionaries and their families were atrociously massacred on the occasion.

Mr Beynon, his wife and 3 children took refuge in the mission house at Tai-Yuen-Fu, in the province of Shan-si.

Qing imperial soldiers during the Boxer Rebellion

They left the mission under promise of safety – the authorities were basely treacherous for the Europeans were handed over to the Boxers who put them to death by decapitation.

In connection with this massacre the following paragraph from Monday’s “South Wales Daily News” is worth reproducing…

“An affecting piece of news has come from China that a high Chinese official has arrived at Pu Chow Fu, on the banks of the Yellow River, from Ta-Yuen-Fu and that he has with him a little foreign child whom he had rescued from the general massacre.”

Shansi edited – courtesy: BMS World Mission

Whom this child may be will be a matter of painful interest to any who had friends in Tai-Yuen-Fu.

The infant, there can be no doubt, is the only survivior of the massacre in which Mr Beynon perished.

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A Porthcawl Missionary in China (1899-1901)

A History of Kenfig

A Porthcawl Missionary in China (1899-1901)

Related Newspaper Article

South Wales Echo – Tuesday November 20, 1900

Porthcawl Family Murdered

Further Particulars

Further Reading

A History of Kenfig

A Porthcawl Missionary in China (1899-1901)

Related Newspaper Article

South Wales Echo – Tuesday November 20, 1900

Porthcawl Family Murdered

Further Particulars

Further Reading

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