Clift, Harry Lechmere 祈理廉 (1923-d.1949, HK)

Harry Lechmere Clift (1st left, front row) and C. Winifred Clift (3rd left, front row) posted with assistants and six servicemen at the Games Room, Library and Tea Room for Servicemen at Emmanuel Church. ca.1940. Credit: Paul Braga Papers.

updated August 12, 2013

Founder of Emmanuel Mission Church, and Bible Union of China, Hong Kong Branch.

b. April 6, 1876 - d. May 26, 1949, Hong Kong, bur. Hong Kong Cemetery, Happy Valley. Eastbourne High School. MB, ChB (Edin.) 1901. Medical missionary, China 1909. Emanuel Medical Mission 傅道會, Nanning, Guangxi 廣西省南寧市, founder and DIC, operated with wife Winifred at own expenses 1909-1917. RAMC, Lieutenant May 1917; Captain May 1918, France. Chinese Labor Corps, France, Medical Officer [n.d.]; staff, Chinese Base Hospital, Nozelles [n.d.]. Returned to Nanning after the WWI [n.d.]. Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society (BCMS) 聖經差會 ca.1923; handed over the mission in Nanning to BCMS 1924. Hong Kong 1923. Registered to practice Hong Kong March 23, 1923 through EOP. Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, whereabouts unknown. Resumed practice after the war. Matilda Hospital 1923. Hong Kong Government, Temporary Medical Officer June 22, 1924; Medical Officer (Coroner's Abolition Ordinance, 1888) July 18, 1924 - March 8, 1925, resigned; Temporary Medical Officer November 2, 1931; Visiting Medical Officer, Chinese Hospitals and Dispensaries 1933- September 30, 1934, resigned. Nanning 1929-31. Returned to Hong Kong 1931. Founder, Emmanuel Mission Church (undenominational) and its associated Fraternity Book Room [1], #218 Nathan Road, Kowloon nlt. December 1936. Corresponding Secretary to Kwangtung and Hong Kong, Bible Union of China [n.d.]; inaugurated the Hong Kong Branch of the Union on February 1, 1932. Founder and DIC, Emmanuel Medical Mission 以馬內利診療所, #218 Nathan Road, Kowloon 1939-49, with an interruption during the Japanese occupation [2]. Residence, address 1: Cheung Chau 1926-38+; address 2: Top floor, #77 Pokfulum Road 1941.

m. Caroline Winifred Ashby, b. November 30, 1876 - d. September 12, 1966, Hong Kong, bur. Hong Kong Cemetery, Happy Valley. Name variations: C. Winifred Lechmere Clift [3]. d/o Walter Ashby and Caroline Brown. Interned at Nam Ping Hotel (Rm. #415) during Japanese occupation. I've found no record that shows the whereabouts of Clift during that time.

[A traveling trader, Fung Sang, 26, approached Clift at the medical mission, #218 Nathan Road, on May 31, 1947 and offered the sale of Morphine Hydrochloride, which was classified a dangerous drug. Since there were neither permit nor documents, Clift called the authorities, after examining and retaining the drug and while Fung was kept waiting in the mission. The trader was arrested and was charged two days later with attempting to sell a dangerous drug without a proper permit. The charge against him was withdrawn as government laboratory analyst showed that the “drug” was in fact plain chalk. On his release, Fung was rearrested and charged with attempting to obtain money by false pretenses. He was sentenced on June 4, 1947 to six months of hard labor. Justice William Alexander Blair-Kerr made the following remarks during the trial, "It is a very serious thing when an imitation could fool such an experienced doctor as Dr. Clift."]

[1] The book room, known as the Emmanuel Bookroom 靈光書室 in later years, was a reading room / library / tea room, which began to publish and retail evangelical books and literatures in ca.1950.

[2] The Emmanuel Medical Mission 以馬內利診療所 continued to operate in the same address until 1967. Another Emmanuel Medical Mission, under a different Chinese name of 靈光醫務所 (later 靈光診所), began to operate at #160 Prince Edward Road, Kowloon City in 1957. A 1963 Inland Revenue Department record lists the Kowloon City mission a subsidiary of The Emmanuel Church 靈光堂. Other subsidiaries listed in the same record included: Deepwell Emmanuel Primary School 靈光小學, Emmanuel Bookroom 靈光書室, Emmanuel Church Shatin Nursery School  沙田靈光幼兒學校 and Kowloon Emmanuel Primary School 九龍靈光小學. The Kowloon City mission removed to a new location at 1/F, #40 Shing Tak Street 盛德街 in 1964. It continued to operated at this address to the present day. A dentistry department was added some time after 1964.

[3] Using the name of C. Winifred Lechmere Clift, Ashby had written no less than four books: Very Far East (London: Marshall Brothers Ltd., 1909), Annals of an Isle in the Pacific (Nanning: s.n., 1915), Looking on in Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Kae Shean, 1927), and Seng Chang Sees Red, and other Stories (London: Marshall Brothers Ltd., 1928).

Selected bibliography: Braga, Stuart, Making Impressions: The Adaptation of a Portuguese Family to Hong Kong, 1700-1950. PhD Thesis, Australian National University, October 2012. The China Mail, September 30, 1926, p.7, Cheung Chau Notes, Dr. and Mrs. Clift Go to Lung Chow; June 5, 1947, p.2, Attempt to Defraud Dr. Clift. The Descendants of Robert Booth, 1626-1698 [internet]. Gwulo: Old Hong Kong › Inscription for Cemetery Sections 17-47 [internet]. The Hong Kong Government Gazette, March 23, 1923, Notice #131; July 25, 1924, Appt. #427; May 6, 1927, Notice #273; May 5, 1939, Notice #362; May 9, 1941, Notice #558. Hong Kong Government Medical Report for the Year 1924, 1925. Hong Kong Government Medical and Sanitary Report for the Year 1931, 1934. Hong Kong Government, Report of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs for the Year 1933. Hong Kong Government Inland Revenue Department › Charitable Institutions & Trusts of a Public Character [internet]. The Hong Kong Telegraph, February 2, 1932, p.12, The Bible Ubnion of China, Local Branch Inaugurated by Dr. Clift. Hong Kong War Diary [internet]. Houghton, Frank L., Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur, Fort Washington, PA: CLC Publications, 1953. Tiedemann, R.G., Christian Missionary Societies in China: from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century, New York: M.E. Sharp, Inc., 2009. University of Edinburgh Roll of Honor 1914-1919, London: Oliver and Boyd, 1921. 《香港年鑑》第九回、第十三回，醫療輯要 (Hong Kong Year Book, 1956, 1960)。