Imagining the Missionary Hero: Juvenile Missionary Biographies, c. 1870-1917 ‘Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy by Julie Anne McColl.’ December 2017 ABSTRACT This thesis examines the fascinating and complex body of work surrounding the missionary hero as a product of late imperial ideas of the heroic produced in the form of biography. It will concentrate upon how the literature was appropriated, reproduced and disseminated via the Sunday school network to working-class children between 1870 and 1917. It will discuss how biographers through imaginative narrative strategies and the reframing of the biography as an adventure story, were able to offer children a physical exemplar and self-sacrificial hero who dispensed clear imperial ideas and moral values. This thesis will reflect upon how the narratives embedded in dominant discourses provided working-class children with imperial ideologies including ideas of citizenship and self-help which it will argue allowed groups of Sunday school readers to feel part of an imagined community. In doing so, the thesis sheds important new light on a central point of contention in the considerable and often heated discussion that has developed since the 1980s around the impact of empire on British people.Through an analysis of common themes it will also consider the depiction of women missionaries, asking whether biographical representation challenged or reinforced traditional gender ideologies. To interrogate these components effectively this thesis is divided into two parts, Part One is divided into five chapters providing context, while Part Two will look in detail at the repetition and adaption of common themes. The first chapter will outline concerns surrounding working-class children and analyse the solutions suggested to provide children with ideas based upon self-improvement, character building and 1 patriotism. Chapter 2 examines the use of the missionary biography in the Sunday school while ideas surrounding the hero and hero-worship and literature incorporating British heroes will be studied in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 analyses the missionary biography and will discuss why the missionary, both male and female, was deemed an ideal candidate to provide examples of self-help and self-improvement. This chapter will conclude with a section introducing missionaries James Hannington and Mary Slessor. Chapters 5 will focus on the role of the publishers, biographers and illustrators. This will lead to Part Two of this thesis which comprises of four chapters investigating common features, motifs and codes within the biographies which highlight how children were inculcated in ideas of patriotism, gender and British superiority all inextricably linked to ideas of community. In conclusion, I consider how far and in what ways the thesis has advanced understanding of missionary biographies in this period, while sketching out some possibilities for further research. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Mark Towsey for his patience, enthusiasm and friendship. His expertise, detailed feedback and careful reading of this thesis has been invaluable. I would also like to thank my other supervisors Dr. Esme Cleall and Dr. Andy Davies who have provided constructive advice and guidance in bringing this thesis together. The resulting work reflects the consistent attention to detail and continual efforts to question and challenge me of all three supervisors. I would also like to thank the University of Liverpool for believing in my abilities and for awarding me the Joseph Rotblat Alumni Scholarship which has made this thesis possible. I would also like to acknowledge fellow PhD students and staff members from the History Department for their support, reassurance and friendship. I am extremely grateful to my work colleagues Hayley, Chris, Grace, Maeva and Tricia who have kept me sane and cheered each time a chapter has been submitted. My children James, Heather and Katrina and my lovely grandson Lewis I thank you for your patience and understanding which also goes for my dogs who have missed out on many walks to the beach. I could not have done any of this without the love and support of my partner Ellis who has encouraged me from day one and who has always been there offering advice, cups of tea and many laughs. Finally, I wish to dedicate this thesis to my late parents Violet and John who always believed in me and like the critics in this thesis strongly believed in the power of education (Dad even had my A level certificates framed). I wish they were here. 3 CONTENTS Abstract page 1 Acknowledgements page 3 Abbreviations page 6 List of Illustrations page 7 Introduction page 9 PART ONE Chapter One page 45 ‘It is important to turn the rising generation on the right road for good citizenship’ - The problems and suggested solutions. Chapter Two page 75 ‘For imitate they will … those they constantly read about’ - Wholesome literature in the Sunday school. Chapter Three page 91 ‘The “ripping good yarn” full of adventure…with the stalwart hero taking centre stage’ - The British hero and hero-worship and heroic narratives. Chapter Four page 116 ‘Adventures of our missionary heroes are equal in thrilling interest to any Jack the Giant-Killer or Blue-beard’s doings’ - The missionary biography. Chapter Five page 165 ‘there is a large market for missionary books of all kinds; and they pour from the press in increasing numbers’ - The biographies, biographers and publishers. 4 PART TWO Chapter Six page 199 ‘glimpses of strange worlds were not documentary, whatever their intention, they were ideological, generally reinforcing the sense of superiority of “civilised” over the “primitive’” - Childhood, journeys and hostile encounters. Chapter Seven page 268 ‘Ideally some sort of imprinting process will take place, and the manliness of the hero will become the manliness of the reader’ - The male missionary as an imperial hero. Chapter Eight page 305 ‘bewildering in their number are the names on the roll of women of courage’ - Negotiating the presence of women missionaries. Chapter Nine page 327 ‘To do one’s duty often means toil, danger, self- sacrifice; but what boy would be so cowardly as to shirk duty because of this?’ - Missionary self-sacrifice and martyrdom. Conclusion page 354 Appendix A page 369 Bibliography page 373 A. Primary Sources page 373 B. Secondary Sources page 392 5 ABBREVIATIONS Societies and Organisations BMS Baptist Missionary Society CMS Church Missionary Society LMS London Missionary Society NSSU National Sunday School Union RTS Religious Tract Society SPCK Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge SSU Sunday School Union UCME United Council for Missionary Education USPG United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Periodicals BOP Boy’s Own Paper GOP Girl’s Own Paper SSC Sunday School Chronicle General ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 6 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1 Advertisement promoting Livingstone (1925) page 23 Figure 2 The Twentieth Century Sunday School Crusaders page 71 Figure 3 Sunday school prize label 1906 page 83 Figure 4 ‘Mackay was glad to make friends by means of his clever hands’ page 124 Figure 5 ‘A Visit from the Dwarfs’ page 132 Figure 6 ‘The Eyes of the Savage were Dazzled’ page 137 Figure 7 ‘The Missionary - as pictured in the comic Press’ page 147 Figure 8 ‘The Missionary as he is’ page 147 Figure 9 ‘A Missionary’s Illustrated Letters’ page 152 Figure 10 Missionary Biographies page 172 Figure 11 Select Christmas Gifts page 173 Figure 12 Hannington of Africa page 193 Figure 13 ‘Prepare then to die O strangers’ page 194 Figure 14 The Healer page 196 Figure 15 David Livingstone the Christian’ Series page 221 Figure 16 ‘I entered that eerie place’ page 223 Figure 17 ‘Our Next Adventure’ page 226 Figure 18 ‘Miss Taylor and Her Party’ page 232 Figure 19 ‘The canoe was attacked by a huge hippopotamus’ page 236 Figure 20 ‘Collapse in Mid-Stream’ page 243 7 Figure 21 ‘Crossing the Stream’ page 243 Figure 22 Greatheart of Papua page 245 Figure 23 ‘A Courageous Mother’ page 248 Figure 24 ‘A Critical Moment’ page 252 Figure 25 ‘Native Curiosity’ page 258 Figure 26 ‘Personal Attention by the Natives’ page 259 Figure 27 ‘A Trying Time with Inquisitive Natives’ page 260 Figure 28 ‘Settling a Quarrel’ page 262 Figure 29 ‘Will you go on now?’ page 263 Figure 30 ‘Now then, if you will, drive your spear to my heart’ page 290 Figure 31 ‘Rescuing Little Children in Darkest Africa’ page 315 Figure 32 ‘Fearless Riding’ page 321 Figure 33 ‘My Dear Sons’ page 329 Figure 34 ‘The Martyrdom on the Beach of Erromanga’ page 332 Figure 35 ‘Be Thou Faithful Unto Death’ page 339 Figure 36 ‘A Heroic Missionary’ page 340 Figure 37 ‘The Lonely Vigil’ page 346 Figure 38 ‘The Martyrdom of Bishop Hannington’ page 349 Figure 39 ‘They forced me up and hurried me away’ page 350 Figure 40 Dan Crawford page 363 Figure 41 Memoir Series I page 363 8 INTRODUCTION The life of a missionary in the interior of Southern Africa is usually attended with stirring incident and adventure. Whilst pursuing his great work of evangelist he meets with game and wild beasts in the open country; with wild and degraded men in town and village. He uses waggons, guns, horses and oxen; he handles trowel, plumb-line, adze, saw, and spirit-level, as well as the usual implements of a minister’s study.1 Here the Rev. John Mackenzie, a Scottish missionary to Southern Africa in the second half of the nineteenth century, provides children with an image of the missionary as strong, fearless and capable, and above all else, a very masculine Christian hero. This form of heroic manhood was found in many popular children’s stories from the mid- nineteenth to early twentieth centuries.