User:Kwib/Retta Gifford

Retta
source: Canada Med journal

Omar Kilborn18-9J1ennie Fowler (died 1892) 1894 ¦Retta Gifford (1864-1942)

West China Mission of the Canadian Methodist Church. Pioneer party in 1891 included Omar and Jennie. The latter died in China in 1892. The pioneer party of Women's Missionary Society, which went to China in 1893, included Retta Gifford, who married Omar in 1894.

Leslie Gifford Constance Ellen (1895-1967) (1898-1961) Cora Alfretta Roland Kenneth (1899- ) (1901-1959)

Before leaving Ontario, Dr. Omar Kilborn married Miss Jennie Fowler, B.A. (Queen's), the daughter of a Professor of Natural Sciences at Queen's University. She travelled with him and the rest of the party on the journey which, in those days (and until about 1917), took roughly three months by river steamer and houseboat from Shanghai to Chengtu, up the Yangtse and Min Rivers. To his great sorrow Mrs. Kilborn died of cholera in Chengtu in 1892, only about two months after they had reached their journey's end. A year after this loss, Dr. Kilborn was sent by his Mission to Shanghai to meet a party of new missionaries and escort them up-river to Chengtu. One of the new arrivals was Dr. Mary Alfretta (usually known as Retta) Gifford, M.D., CM. (Trinity, Toronto), who became the first woman doctor with modern training to work in West China, that is, in China West of the Yangtse Gorges. The long river journey gave them ample time to become acquainted, and before the journey was over they an¬ nounced their engagement. They were married in Chengtu on May 24, 1894. Retta Gifford Kilborn was born in a log house on her parents' farm about three miles from Meaford, Ontario. She was the eldest of eight children, and since the eldest in a large farming family was expected to help with the home and farm work, she was unable to begin high school studies until after she was 18 years of age. She was determined to study medicine at a time when very few women anywhere were permitted to study medicine, but by dogged perseverance she achieved her goal. She was admitted to the Women's Medical College, Toronto (later absorbed into Trinity University), and graduated in 1891 with the Trinity degrees of M.D., CM. Dr. Retta Gifford then commenced private prac¬ tice in Owen Sound, about 20 miles from her birthplace. A year later she was invited by the Canadian Methodist Church, through its Woman's Missionary Society, to go as a pioneer medical missionary to the recently opened mission in Szechwan. She ac¬ cepted the challenge and sailed for China in 1893. After her marriage, she joined her husband in the task of establishing a centre for medical work in West China, during a time of great political turbulence. Anti-foreign riots and repercussions of the Boxer Rising were the back¬ ground of their life for the next seven years. Immediately after their marriage they were sta¬ tioned in Kiating (now Loshan), a city on the Min River about 100 miles south of Chengtu, where their first child, Leslie Gifford Kilborn, was born on April 7, 1895. In May, they were moved back to Chengtu just in time for antiforeign riots, in which all foreign-owned prop¬ erty in the city was destroyed. After some adventurous days in hiding they were able to make their way, in the middle of the night, to a boat that started them on the long journey back to Shanghai. Fig. 3.Dr. Retta Gifford Kilborn about before her retirement in 1932. 1930, shortly On their On their return to Chengtu later that same year, Dr. Retta Kilborn opened a hospital for women and children, while her husband con¬ tinued his recognized leadership in the pioneer group which established a hospital for men, and in 1910 founded the West China Union Uni¬ versity. Dr. Omar L. Kilborn was the first Chair¬ man of the Senate of the new university, and was prominent among those who moved for¬ ward to the establishment, in 1914, of its Faculty of Medicine (Fig. 4). The two Canadian Mis¬ sion Hospitals were for many years the principal teaching hospitals of the Faculty of Medicine. From the founding of the university until his death, while on leave in 1920, he was a member of the teaching staff (Fig. 5). In those early days and in that remote area, university teachers were in short supply, so he taught among other medical and science subjects, chemistry, physi¬ ology and ophthalmology. Their second child, Constance Ellen, was born in Chengtu in 1898, and their second daughter, Cora Alfretta, in 1899, while on furlough in Canada, and a sec¬ ond son, Roland Kenneth, in December 1901, in Chengtu. In addition to her responsibilities in bringing up the children, Dr. Retta Kilborn was a member of the University Faculty and taught pediatrics, therapeutics and other subjects to medical students. In those early days it was the general feeling that lay mission¬ aries should be ordained in order to be on the same footing as their pastoral brethren, so Dr. Omar Kilborn was accorded special ordination as a minister of the church he served. He was one of the organizers of the Chinese Red Cross Society in Szechwan and, during the Chinese Revolution in 1911, which overthrew the Manchu Dynasty, he went out to serve the sick and wounded. An American, the Rev. James M. Yard of the Methodist Episcopal Mission, wrote of him at that time: "Dr. Kilborn was touched with the sufferings of the soldiers, who usually had no one to give them first aid. He went out under the very primitive Chinese Red Cross and spent months with the army. He had difficulty in getting proper food. It was the rainy season . . . and he usually had to go on foot . . . (with) his bare feet in straw sandals and thus marched through the mud of the battlefields. Knowledge of him spread everywhere. Here was a great physician who had left the comfort of his well-equipped hospital to serve common soldiers. [Soldiers were not hon¬ oured in China in those days.] The Chinese said, 'Surely, he is a holy man, we have scarcely [ever] seen such love for humanitv." In 1919 the Kilborns went home to Canada on their third furlough. While there, in April 1920, Victoria University con¬ ferred upon Dr. Omar Kilborn the honorary degree of D.D. A little more than one month later he died of pneumonia following an attack of the virulent form of influenza that was an aftermath of the 1914-18 war. The Christian memorial service in Chengtu was attended by a host of Chinese friends as well as large numbers of missionaries. But the non-Christian leaders of the Chinese community planned a memorial which is one of the most interesting events in the annals of missionary work: Dr. Kilborn's picture, hung with immense, beautifully embroidered banners, was set up on a large table in the great open court of the Confucian Temple. Buddhist priests in white mourning costume conducted the ceremony during which they chanted prayers and recited portions of the Buddhist scriptures. Never before had a mis¬ sionary been honoured in that way; and never since. The tributes paid to Omar L. Kilborn at that service were not mere sculptured praise; they were statements of fact to which the work that survived

him bears enduring testimony. He was an expert linguist, a careful administrator, an able speaker, a constructive educator, a faithful friend. Most significantly of all for his work in China, he was implicitly trusted by the Chinese be¬ cause of his unsparing devotion to their interests. He was the author of several books, including "Heal the Sick", a book on medical mis¬ sionary work, published in Canada in 1910, and "Chinese Lessons", a book for first-year students of Chinese in West China, published in Chengtu in 1917. This lastnamed was the most important book used by all foreign students of the Chinese language in West China until the 1930's. After her husband's death, Dr. Retta Kilborn returned to West China and spent most of the next 12 years on the staff of the Faculty of Medicine and of the Canadian Mission Hospital for Women and Children in Chengtu (Fig. 6). She had, with her husband, played an important part in establishing the Faculty of Medicine (later called the College of Medicine) of the W.C.U.U. She now fought over again the battles of her youth in helping to persuade the authorities to open the university, including the Medical College, to women students, for women were at first not admitted to the university. Dr. Retta Kilborn had the same quality of stalwart faith as her husband. She was undismayed by the turbulent conditions and recur¬ rent dangers which she and the other pioneers experienced. In the terrifying riots of 1895, which almost cost them their lives, their mis¬ sionary purpose and their devotion to the Chi¬ nese people never faltered. Dr. Retta Kilborn, like her husband, was an able linguist and was completely trusted by the Chinese people. She was one of the pioneers in the movement against foot-binding and early in her career became president of the Chengtu Anti-Footbinding So¬ ciety. She lived to see the day when that custom, which had brought such pain to small girls, was abolished by law. By common consent, her greatest contribution was in the treatment of children's diseases. She continued her work in West China until her retirement in 1933. She died in Toronto on December 1, 1942 in her 79th year. While Drs. Omar and Retta Kilborn were in¬ volved in establishing West China University their eldest son, Leslie Gifford, went home to Canada for his education.

In 1918 Leslie obtained his M.A. in physiology from the University of Toronto, and then con¬ tinued his studies in medicine, graduating in 1921. In 1921, also, he married Janet R. McClure, M.D. (Toronto), daughter of Dr. William McClure, one of the pioneers of the Canadian Presbyterian Mission, who went to Honan in North China in 1888. Leslie and his wife then set out for West China in the autumn of 1921. En route they were able to visit, briefly, Janet's parents in North China. On arrival in Chengtu they were sent at once to Penghsien, a city about 30 miles north of Chengtu, instead of being required, like most new missionaries, to study Chinese at the Lan¬ guage School of the W.C.U.U. This was because the need for medical help in Penghsien was urgent and there were no modern-trained doc¬ tors there. Also, it was felt that because Leslie and Janet had spoken Chinese as children they could get along without the aid of the Language School.

Jean Ewald Kilborn, nee Millar, M.D. (West¬ ern Ontario), and specialist certificate in anes¬ thesia, was born in Guelph, Ontario, in 1906, the daughter of a well-known hardware merchant. After completing her secondary education in Guelph, she studied medicine at the University of Western Ontario. In 1932 she was sent by the Women's Missionary Society of the United Church of Canada to West China, on a threeyear appointment, to take over the work of Dr. Retta Kilborn who was soon to retire. On her arrival in Chengtu, a civil war with street fighting had just ceased, and Jean Millar had to climb over numerous barricades to make her way through the city streets to the Canadian Mission Hospital for Women and Children. In the operating room, she was introduced to Dr. Retta Kilborn, who promptly gave her the task of completing the administration of an anesthetic to a patient on the table, while Dr. Retta went to supervise the admission of more of the wounded women and children still streaming into the hospital. Later Dr. Jean Millar also took over from Dr. Retta Kilborn much of her teach¬ ing of pediatrics to medical students. Jean Millar's association with the Kilborn

After graduation Cora studied public health nursing at the University of Toronto and later completed the course in teaching and ad¬ ministration. In 1926 she went to West China under the Women's Missionary Society of the United Church of Canada and worked in the Chengtu Hospital for Women and Children, one of the teaching hospitals of the W.C.U.U. For almost five years Dr. Retta Kilborn and Cora Alfretta Kilborn gave leadership in medical and nursing education in this hos¬ pital which the mother had originally founded. After Dr. Retta's retirement, Cora continued to work and teach in Chengtu.

For a few years, during the final illness of her mother, Cora, with true Chinese filial devo¬ tion, returned to Toronto to give special care to her mother. After her mother's death in 1941, Cora returned to Chengtu and resumed her work there.