The Collins Family
Ethel
Frances Collins
8 October
1894
James Stratford Collins
Mary
Isabella (Johnson) Collins
9 June 1897, in
the
wreck of the Aden off Socotra in the Mahra
Sultanate of Qishn and Socotra (now part of Yemen), aged 2. See the
entry on Ethel's mother, Mary, for details of this tragedy.
A
memorial to Ethel has been placed
in Ardamine Church, county Wexford.
In loving memory of
Rev.
James Stratford Collins. C. M. S.
drowned in Min River, China, April 20th
1897 aged 37
buried at Foo Chow
also of
Mary Isabella his wife aged 37
Ethel aged 2 and Philip aged 1 their
children
and Margaret Hogan their nurse
lost in
the wreck of the 'Aden' off Socotra June 9th 1897.
Helen Mary Emily Collins
7 July 1892, in Foo-Chow, Fukien
province, China
James Stratford Collins
Mary
Isabella (Johnson) Collins
16 December 1989
 |
|
Headstone of Helen Mary Emily Collins in
St
John the Apostle graveyard, Ardamine, county Wexford
|
St John the Apostle graveyard,
Ardamine, county Wexford, Ireland. Helen's headstone reads:
Helen M. E. CoLLINS
died 16th dec. 1989. aged 95 yrs
1911:
14 Belgrave Road, Monkstown, county Dublin
Herbert
Stratford Collins
27 January
1891, in Foo-Chow, Fukien province, China
James Stratford
Collins
Mary Isabella (Johnson) Collins
Trinty College Dublin
Ellen Louise Furr in 1918, in Dublin South district, county Dublin,
Ireland
Medical Doctor. Herbert graduated M.B., B.Ch. in 1918 and M.D. in 1920
and admitted D.P.H., R.C.P.S. Ireland in 1920.
Herbert served in World War I in the
Army Service Corps. On 12 September 1914 he was promoted from Cadet to
temporary Second Lieutenant (London Gazette 6 October 1914 p8003)
1911:
Middletown, Ardamine, county Wexford
1945: Hollingbourne, Kent
(CWGC memorial for son, Peter)
1960: Godfrey House, Hollingbourne,
Kent (The Medical Register pt1 p420)
James
Stratford Collins
 |
James Stratford Collins
|
|
 |
James Stratford Collins
|
Reverend
11 September
1860, in Shih-Ku, Kuang-Tung, China
William Henry Collins. Rev. Collins was also
a missionary in China, in Shanghai and Peking.
Helen Jane _____
Trinty College Dublin,
graduating B.A. in 1884.
Mary Isabella Johnson on 17 February 1890
The
history of the Church Missionary Society: its
environment, its men and its work p793 by Eugene Stock
(1899):
[James Collins] had
married a C.E.Z. lady in the
Fuh-kien Mission, one of two Misses Johnson of Dublin, sisters of the
present head of the Irish Church Missions to Roman Catholics there.
Missionary
to China
James was ordained in 1884, and sailed for China in
September 1887.
The
Church Missionary Gleaner May 1889 pp68-9
In 1887 a missionary union formed among the
students of Trinity College, Dublin, decided, by subscriptions
collected by themselves, to support a Fuh-Kien missionary, and in
pursuance of this scheme a young Dublin University man, the Rev. J.S.
Collins, B.A., a son of the Rev. W.H. Collins, who was a C.M.S.
missionary at Shanghai and Pekin from 1857 to 1880, was sent out.
...
The present disposition of the staff is as follows: - ... Mr. Lloyd and
Mr. Shaw work the College at Fuh-Chow and the other educational
institutions. Mr. Collins, the Trinity College (Dublin) missionary,
will also be attached to the College.
In 1890, Collins was put in charge of
the missionary activities in Lo-ngwong.
For Christ in Fuh-Kien pp70-72, by T.
McClelland (Church Missionary Society, 1904)
When, at the beginning of the year 1890,
the Rev. J. S. Collins was put in
charge of Lo-ngwong, and took up his residence in the district, he found much to distress him. The
district had previously been
superintended by Archdeacon Wolfe from Fuh-chow, but he was. only able to visit it
occasionally; consequently the
native pastor and other agents did not have that close and constant supervision which was so necessary. As a
result, quarrels and dissensions
were sadly prevalent, and constituted a great stumbling-block to the work among the
Heathen. This is illustrated by a
remark made to Mr. Collins, "The Christians
abuse their neighbours. We can do that without changing our religion." In some cases, too, the
work proved to be only of a surface
character. As an illustration of what was met with, Mr. Collins told of a visit he paid to
Tiong-tang, where in one large clan
out of seven brothers six had been baptized:-
My first visit
there was the sign for a storm such as I have seldom encountered. One of the hrothers had heen
expelled from the Church on a charge
of false witness, though he had previously held a position as Churchwarden (or what corresponds to the office
out here), and the bitterness against
all in authority was intense. With open Bibles they met me text for text, with bitter words and angry
looks and gestures. I waited and
prayed. At last the chance was given and they listened till the word given me brought from the second brother the
angry retort, "There was only one
Jesus, and He was God, but I am a man," but it had shown him our standard, and his own conscience
had shown him how far short he had
fallen of it, as he confessed months afterwards with words of humble apology.
But encouraging incidents were not
lacking. Sungkia, being situated on
an island three miles to seaward, had escaped
the unhappy contagion of discord, and was described as "the one bright spot" in fee district. Mr.
Collins wrote:-
The two leading men are in themselves pictures of
what the love of Christ can make
this people, and an evidence that there was a true and real work from the very first here. Just before I
came an attempt had been made by the
Heathen to compel the Christians to subscribe to a new idol temple. The richest man on the island is
a Christian, and, led by him, they
stoutly refuised, and held their own. Not only so, but they did more. The island was reached by a
stone causeway, covered at high
tide. The chief village on it extends for half a mile along the side of the island facing the mainland.
At the upper end, opposite the new
temple, is the old causeway, so that to cross from the lower end of the village, a long detour had to be
made. The Christians refused to
subscribe to the temple, but to show their public spirit, offered to build a second causeway at the lower end of
the island. This was done, and I was
taken to see the new causeway as a triumph, which, indeed, it was.
And of a former member of the
congregation at Uong-buang who had lately removed to Lo-ngwong, and
whose zeal was a great encouragement, Mr. Collins wrote:-
Living in the Roman Catholic quarter of the
town, he refused to go with his neighbours, who iuvited him, either to
worship or to gamble, and his reputation reached the ears of the
priest, a Spaniard, who sent for him, and talked with him for two
hours, questioning him on both the Old and New Testament history.
Astonished at the answers of so rough a man, he asked him how many
years he had read in school. 'I never was at school,' said the man.
'Where, then, did you learn all this?' 'From reading my Bible.' was the
answer, and the priest was silent. Then he showed him the crucifix in
the chapel. It impressed the man, but in an unexpected direction. To
some minds his answer would be shocking, but to him, himself recently
an idolator, it came quite naturally. 'What a pity,' he said, 'to make
an idol of the Lord Jesus Christ for the heathen to laugh at!'
Mrs. Collins was warmly welcomed in
visiting the homes of the Christian women, but meetings of women were
not possible, owing to the prevalent animosities.
During
the next few years the work was extended in several directions. A
little hospital was opened at Lo-ngwong under the charge of the head
student of Dr. Taylor's hospital at Fuh-ning; a boarding-school for
boys was established with sixteen pupils, and also, a Women's Scliool;
and work among a community of lepers living outside the Nortk Gate was
set on foot by the help of the Mission to Lepers, which supplied the
stipend of the leper catechist who lived amonig them. He was the only
Christian in the village when he died, in 1895, but there were one or
two earnest inquirers. Later a number of the lepers were baptized; a
church was built in the village by means of funds contributed through
the Mission to Lepers by two Dublin ladies; and afterwards an American
lady, through the same Society, provided the money for building a Home
for the untainted children of lepers (which was built close to the
Mission compound), and also for its endowment.
Late in 1891 or early in 1892,
Collins was appointed to the
Nang-wa district, where his wife's sister, Frances Johnson, was working
as a medical missionary with the C.E.Z.M.S.
The
Church Missionary Gleaner April 1892 p58
LETTER
FROM DR. J. RIGG
NANG WA, Dec. 9th, 1891.
Now I shall no
longer be alone, as the Rev. J.S. Collins has been appointed here and
will in a few weeks (p.v.) come up along with his family.
For Christ in Fuh-Kien pp121, by T.
McClelland (Church Missionary Society, 1904)
Four lady missionaries of the C.E.Z.M.S., were
appointed to this district at the
end of 1891, and when the Rev. J. S. Collins, who was in charge of the district, came home on
furlough and Dr. Rigg took up his
residence at Seven Stars Bridge, near Kien-ning
city, where the new hospital had been built, the ladies were left alone at the station.
Mr. Collins
returned to Nang-wa in March, 1897,
but his term of service was but
short, for on Easter Tuesday, April 20th,
he met his death by drowning.
Mary
Darley described her trip up the Min River from Foo-Chow to Nang-wa in
February 1897. (The light of the morning : the story of C.E.Z.M.S.
work in the Kien-ning Prefecture of the Fuh-kien Province, China
by Mary E. Darley (1903) p20). Although she does not explicitly
state it, mentioning only "a large party of new and returning
missionaries", I believe the Rev. Collins and his family were with Mary
on this trip, returning from their furlough.
20
April 1897, drowned in the Min River between Yen-ping and Chiu-kow,
Fu-kien province, China, aged 37.
The
history of the Church Missionary Society: its
environment, its men and its work p793 by Eugene Stock (1899)
The Rev James Stratford Collins, of Trinity
College, Dublin (and the first supported by the T.C.D. Association), -
a son of the Rev. W.H. Collins, formerly of Shanghai and Peking
- was one of the most earnest missionaries in China, and a devoted
follower of Robert Stewart in his principles and methods of missionary
work. On Easter Tuesday, April 20th, 1897, he was in a boat descending
the River Min from Yen-ping to Chiu-kow, when the boat struck on a
rock, and before he could swim to the shore, a whirlpool sucked him
down.
Foo Chow,
Fukien province, China
For Christ in Fuh-Kien pp121, by T.
McClelland (Church Missionary Society, 1904)
His body was found, and interred in the Fuh-chow
Cemetery. Some three hundred Native Christians attended his funeral.
The hymn, " Peace, perfect Peace" was sung in English, and "For ever
with the Lord" in Chinese.
A memorial to James and his
family has been
placed
in Ardamine Church, county Wexford.
In loving memory of
Rev.
James Stratford Collins. C. M. S.
drowned in Min River, China, April 20th
1897 aged 37
buried at Foo Chow
also of
Mary Isabella his wife aged 37
Ethel aged 2 and Philip aged 1 their
children
and Margaret Hogan their nurse
lost in
the wreck of the 'Aden' off Socotra June 9th 1897.
For Christ in Fuh-Kien pp122, by T.
McClelland (Church Missionary Society, 1904)
Mysterious indeed are God's ways. James Stratford
Collins survived fevers, and escaped
riots, to die by drowning in the familiar
Min, on whose waters he had hundreds of times been borne without a thought of danger. He was an
ardent missionary, of a bright and
sunny nature; impulsive, it is true, but generous to a degree, and full of kindness. A
brass to the memoiy of Mr. and Mrs.
Collins has been put in Ardamine Church,
Co. Wexford, the native place of the latter, bearing the appropriate text, "When thou passest through
the waters I will be with thee." A
memorial to Mr. Collins, subscribed for by old Reptonians, has also been erected in the
Chapel of Repton School, where he
was educated, and a further fund, raised
by friends in Ireland, has been applied towards purchasing some mission property in Kien-ning.
Philip Rowland Collins
27 March 1896, in Rathdown district, county Dublin or Wicklow, Ireland
James
Stratford Collins
Mary Isabella (Johnson) Collins
9 June 1897, in
the
wreck of the Aden off Socotra in the Mahra
Sultanate of Qishn and Socotra (now part of Yemen), aged 1. See the
entry on Philip's mother, Mary, for details of this tragedy.
A
memorial to Philip has been placed
in Ardamine Church, county Wexford.
In loving memory of
Rev.
James Stratford Collins. C. M. S.
drowned in Min River, China, April 20th
1897 aged 37
buried at Foo Chow
also of
Mary Isabella his wife aged 37
Ethel aged 2 and Philip aged 1 their
children
and Margaret Hogan their nurse
lost in
the wreck of the 'Aden' off Socotra June 9th 1897.
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