Dorothy Anne MOWLL

MOWLL, DOROTHY ANNE (b. Bath, England, 18 June 1890; d. Sydney, NSW, 23 Dec 1957). Missionary, bishop's wife.

Dorothy Martin was the daughter of CMS missionaries in Fukien, China. When she was six months old, they took her with them back to their station inland from Foochow; but her mother died in 1894 and she was sent home to England to live with aunts in Bath. She left school at 18, and, conscious of a call to missionary service, secured a Kindergarten Certificate and the Teacher Training Diploma of the National Froebel Union. She then worked at the Bermondsey Medical Mission in order to gain dispensary experience before leaving England on 18 November 1915 to serve with CMS in the Province of Szechwan, China.

Dorothy Martin had the qualities of a pioneer: a zest for hardship and an ardent pursuit of the new and unknown. She was always daring, and knew no fear. Her love of games and her infectious gaiety were a golden asset with her fellow missionaries. Her dark brown eyes and hair, and her fluent Chinese made it easy for her to win good-will, and she gloried in the wild mountain scenery where her work lay. In August 1917, she and a friend set out to climb the 19 000 feet Chin-ting-shan or Nine Pinnacle Mountain. She and a guide went on alone to the peak where she reached a higher point than any foreign climber before.

In February 1918 she went for twelve months to Long-an in the mountains which look towards Tibet and visited villages where no missionary had ever been. In March 1921 she set out on the long journey to the coast on her way home on furlough. Her small boat was held up and robbed by river pirates, she was searched, but escaped safely. She arrived in London in June less than three weeks after her father's death.

Dorothy Martin was in Westminster Abbey for the consecration of Howard Mowll (q.v.) on 22 June 1922 and was also present at his farewell in Church House on 9 January 1923. She sailed for Shanghai on 8 February and was at Mien-chu in October when Bishop Cassels and Bishop Mowll arrived. She was made Supervisor of Schools and secretary to the Education Committee. She was sent to Chongpa and then to Sin-tu. On 26 August, her engagement to Howard Mowll was announced and on 23 October 1923, they were married by Bp Cassels.

It was a happy marriage, though there were no children. There were many contrasts in their life and manner. He was solemn, and she was full of fun, he was dignified, courteous and shy, while she was full of merriment and adventure; he was slow and deliberate in thought, speech and movement, while she was fond of games, loved walking and gloried in the mountains. He was always in need of an intimate companion and he leant on her with absolute confidence. She was ready to act as his interpreter and helped him to win the trust and good-will of the Chinese. He relied on her without reserve in all questions of language and travel, and their minds were increasingly drawn into the same mould of thought and outlook.

Mrs Mowll was with him and five other missionaries as well as the two year old daughter of Mr and Mrs Donnithorne at a holiday resort known as Silverdale when they were seized by Red-lamp brigands on 4 August 1925. They were hurried from place to place alternately threatened or indulged, badly housed and poorly fed until 29 August when they were released after the payment of a substantial ransom. Nor was this their only experience of the hazards of war-torn China. In December 1931 they left Ho-chow to travel to Tung-lan on the Yang-tze and were in a cabin at the back of the boat when rifle shots were fired across the bow. Six armed river pirates came on board and began to search their bags. Bp Mowll was clubbed and stabbed; Mrs Mowll was struck on the head. They were bleeding freely and she was to carry a scar down the centre of her scalp for the rest of her life. Twelve months later, in December 1932, their home in Cheng-tu was looted in the course of a battle between rival war-lords and they lost all their possessions.

It was a great wrench for Mrs Mowll to leave China in order to make her home in Sydney when her husband was appointed archbishop in 1933, but the pattern of work which had made up her life would soon repeat itself. She was hostess to constant visitors and guests at Bishopscourt as well as in an endless round of diocesan activities. When war broke out, she threw herself with self-denying sacrificial effort into the work of the Church of England National Emergency Fund and the Sydney Diocesan Churchwomen's Association.

Mrs Mowll was equally committed to the CENEF Memorial Centre which was opened in December 1947. She was a prime mover in the acquisition of Gilbulla as a diocesan conference centre in 1949 and in the foundation of the International Friendship Centre as a hostel for university students at Wingham in 1951. She had a wonderful eye for what might be done and how to do it. Her last dream was for a church veterans village and she initiated an active search for a suitable site. After her death, Abp Mowll's most cherished desire was to fulfil her hopes and plans in this respect. In what proved to be the last week of his life, he was taken to Elwaton at Castle Hill and felt at once that it was ideal. After his death, it was purchased, and twelve months later on 24 October 1959 the Howard and Dorothy Mowll Memorial Village was opened.

Mrs Mowll was seriously unwell throughout 1954 and it was feared that she would not survive another year. A fresh course of treatment with the aid of a new drug from America effected a remarkable improvement. In 1956 she was appointed OBE. Then in November she travelled with her husband as part of a delegation to visit the church in China. While in Fukien she saw the home in which she had lived as a child, and stood by the graves of her mother and sister. But she became ill in Nanking; this was aggravated in Peking where she slipped and broke a small bone in her shoulder.

The rest of the tour was curtailed, but she was allowed to proceed to Szechwan where she rejoiced in her meeting with old friends and converts. She knew that her illness was more serious than had been admitted and she would gladly have laid her bones in Cheng-tu. Twelve months later, it was found that the Hodgkinson's disease was so widespread that there was no hope of arrest. She was planning for the future to the last and inspiring others to go on in spite of all setbacks.

M L Loane, Archbishop Mowll (Sydney, 1960)

MARCUS LOANE