Douglas Fowler PIKE

PIKE, DOUGLAS FOWLER (b. Launceston, Tas, 30 April 1877, d. Kweichow (Guizhou), China, c. Sept 1929). Martyred missionary, China.

Douglas Pike trained at Angas College, Adelaide, but his departure with the CIM was delayed due to the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 and he became a Methodist home missionary in Tasmania until he sailed for China in December 19()1, working in Kweichow (Guizhou) province. On 13 Feb 1906 Douglas Pike m. Louisa Boulter, an Australian nurse from Ballarat whom he had met at Bible College and who had joined him in China in 1903. Louisa was the only midwife in the province and trained the Pikes to help deliver their first child Allison. In 28 years of missionary work Douglas had only two furloughs; they had five children, Allison and Walter became missionaries to China, Faith died as a child in 1925.

Civil unrest in Kweichow made it unsafe for the Pikes to return there after furlough in 1925 and they remained in Shanghai, Pike working as transport manager and Louisa working in the hospital. In 1929 they returned to Kweichow and on 14 Sept Pike set out with three Chinese to meet new missionaries, but was intercepted by bandits, taken captive and a ransom note sent with a servant to Louisa. No further news was forthcoming until December when a radiogram reported 'Pike not living'. A local man was equipped as a pedlar to find out what had happened and was informed that a foreigner had been shot and cast into a lime pit nearby.

An appreciation was published in China's Millions, Jan 1930: 'Mr Pike was a capable linguist and an effective preacher. He had considerable experience in Church work and was a good Bible teacher. His bright, sunny temperament and cheerful manner commended him to the Chinese; and his zeal, energy and devotion, to his fellow-workers'. Louisa continued as a missionary in Kweichow until her retirement in 1944.

Unpublished family history by Allison Butler

MARJORIE KEEBLE (NÉE BUTLER)