Charles Inglis MCLAREN

MCLAREN, CHARLES INGLIS (b. Tokyo, Japan, 23 Aug 1882; d. Melbourne, Vic, 9 Oct 1957). Presbyterian missionary in Korea.

Charles McLaren was the younger son of Samuel Gilfillan McLaren, missionary to Japan of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, who was forced to return to Scotland after eight years due to ill health and migrated to Australia with his family in 1886. He was educated at Scotch College and the University of Melbourne (MS, BS and MD).

McLaren was strongly influenced at the age of nine by a revival meeting at Portarlington, then as a school boy delegate to the conference of the Australian Student Christian Union in 1896. As an undergraduate he became active in the Student Volunteer Movement whose watchword was 'The Evangelisation of the World in this generation'. Its basis of membership was a promise 'It is my purpose, if God permit, to become a foreign missionary'.

After completing his medical studies and internships, he devoted a year as a travelling secretary for the Australasian Student Christian Union in Australia and New Zealand. A fellow secretary was Jessie Reeve, also of missionary background and preparing to join her father in India. Mutual attraction and shared dedication to seeking God's purpose in their lives led to their marriage in Melbourne in Aug 1911 and departure for Korea six weeks later.

Charles McLaren was appointed initially to the Margaret Whitecross Paton Memorial Hospital in Chinju. In 1914 the mission was invited to assign a doctor to a united mission project, Severance Union Medical College and Hospital in Seoul. He was nominated but participated as a visiting lecturer only until 1923; the delay was caused by the war and his own medical service in France during World War One.

At Severance, later to become the medical faculty of Yonsei University, his appointment was as professor of Neurology and Psychological Medicine. He held this appointment until 1939 when the demands of the Japanese state for emperor worship led to his resignation and return to the Chinju Hospital. He was arrested immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbour, imprisoned for eleven weeks and then interned with four other Australian missionaries before repatriation to Australia in Nov 1942.

Uncertain health prevented his return to Korea after the war but his zeal in proclamation of God's word as it applied to the whole spectrum of human relationships, from personal to international, was unabated. His fascination with the Bible was an abiding interest and he constantly found new insights. He wrote 'Truth for living has come into human life in the person of Jesus Christ'. In retirement McLaren lectured widely, contributed to various professional and other publications, on one occasion stood for parliament as a protest against the White Australia policy, and published a number of books.

RACHEL R HUMAN