Catherine Theodora, Lady Macartney (1877–1949). Catherine (née Borland) was born in Bexley, Kent, England. She was the second daughter of James Borland born 1836 in

Castle Douglas Castle Douglas ( gd, Caisteal Dhùghlais) is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It lies in the lieutenancy area of Kirkcudbrightshire, in the eastern part of Galloway, between the towns of Dalbeattie and Gatehouse of Fleet. It is in the ...

, Scotland. In 1898, she married Sir George Macartney, the British Consul in

Kashgar Kashgar ( ug, قەشقەر, Qeshqer) or Kashi ( zh, c=喀什) is an oasis city in the Tarim Basin region of Southern Xinjiang. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, near the border with Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan ...

. Catherine's father had studied in Scotland with George Macartney's father,

Halliday Macartney Sir Samuel Halliday McCartney (1833–1906), also spelled Halliday Macartney, was a Scottish military surgeon and diplomat serving the Chinese government during the late Qing dynasty. McCartney was a member of the same family as George Macartne ...

In 1915

Percy Sykes Brigadier-General Sir Percy Molesworth Sykes, (28 February 1867 – 11 June 1945) was a British soldier, diplomat, and scholar with a considerable literary output. He wrote historical, geographical, and biographical works, as well as describing ...

and

Ella Sykes Ella Sykes or Ella Constance Sykes (11 November 1863 – 23 March 1939) was a traveller and writer from the United Kingdom. Life Sykes was born in Stoke near Plymouth in 1863. Her parents were Army chaplain Rev. William Sykes (born 1829) and his ...

journeyed to

Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...

to relieve them. The journey took them over a month. Whilst they were there they travelled further. Ella was the first British woman to pass through the "Katta Dawan" pass that was 13,000 feet high. Their journey home also took a month and these journeys were recorded in photographs. Catherine published her memoirs detailing her time in Kashgar in 1931. She helped the archaeologists who discovered the

Dunhuang manuscripts Dunhuang manuscripts refer to a wide variety of religious and secular documents (mostly manuscripts, but also including some woodblock-printed texts) in Chinese and other languages that were discovered at the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China, durin ...

. The Macartneys had three children: Eric Borland Macartney (1903–1994), Sylvia Theodora Macartney (1906–1950) and Robin Halliday Macartney (1911–1973). Eric was born in England, shortly before the Macartneys were due to return to Kashgar. Lady Macartney travelled, accompanied by a nurse, with her newborn child through Central Asia to Kashgar. She died in Charminster, Dorset, England in 1949.

References

People from Castle Douglas Scottish memoirists Scottish women writers Scottish people of the British Empire 1877 births 1949 deaths British women memoirists British expatriates in China {{Scotland-writer-stub