Thomas Torrance (1871–1959), born in

Shotts Shotts is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is located almost halfway between Glasgow () and Edinburgh (). The village has a population of about 8,840. A local story has Shotts being named after the legendary giant highwayman Bertram de ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, was a Scottish Protestant missionary to China. He was first sent there by the

China Inland Mission OMF International (formerly Overseas Missionary Fellowship and before 1964 the China Inland Mission) is an international and interdenominational Evangelical Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It was founded i ...

(CIM), and later by The

American Bible Society American Bible Society is a U.S.-based Christian nonprofit headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As the American member organization of United Bible Societies, it supports global Bible translation, production, distribution, literacy, engage ...

. He married Annie Elizabeth Sharp (1883–1980) of the CIM in 1911. He was the father of the 20th century theologian, Thomas F. Torrance.

Biography

Torrance was born in Shotts, Scotland in 1871. He came from a strong evangelical

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...

background. He attended Hulme Cliff College in

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

from 1892 to 1894, and then studied at Livingstone College, London from 1894 to 1895. After finishing his training at Cliff and Livingstone Colleges for missionary service, he was first sent to

Chengdu Chengdu (, ; Simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively Romanization of Chi ...

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

in 1895, by the China Inland Mission (CIM). Torrance was stationed in Western Sichuan, from 1896 to 1910 as a missionary. While he was there, the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

of 1900 occurred. Torrance had a number of disagreements with the CIM and eventually left and returned to Scotland in 1910. While at the Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary Conference, he met Dr. John R. Hykes, who was head of the

(ABS) in Shanghai. Hykes persuaded him to return to China to take over the West China agency of the ABS in Sichuan, based in Chengdu. In 1911, Torrance married Annie Elizabeth Sharp who was also a member of the CIM, and was stationed in Guanxian. The couple had six children who were all born in China: Mary, Thomas F., Grace, Margaret,

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

, and

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

. Due to unrest caused by Communist troops in the beginning of the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...

, the Torrance family left China in 1927 and settled in Scotland. Thomas Torrance would return to China to continue his missionary work, without his family, for seven years, but leave China for the final time in 1934 due to the Chinese Civil War. Torrance is known for being the first Westerner to make contact with the

Qiang people The Qiang people ( Qiangic: ''Rrmea''; ) are an ethnic group in China. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognised by the People's Republic of China, with a population of approximately 310,000 in 2000. They live mainly in a ...

, who he believed belonged to the

Lost Tribes of Israel The ten lost tribes were the ten of the Twelve Tribes of Israel that were said to have been exiled from the Kingdom of Israel after its conquest by the Neo-Assyrian Empire BCE. These are the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Ashe ...

. He was also instrumental in establishing the Archaeological Museum of

West China Union University The West China Union University ( zh, t=華西協合大學), also called West China University or Huaxi University, was a private university in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. It was the product of the collective efforts of four Protestant, denominational ...

. He died in Edinburgh in 1959.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Torrance, Thomas 1871 births 1959 deaths Christian writers Protestant missionaries in Sichuan Scottish Presbyterian missionaries British expatriates in China People associated with West China Union University

Biography

See also

References