Letters from Spicer to her parents, other family members and friends 1923-1958; circular
letters, printed or mimeographed, to friends in Britain and North America 1923-1973;
correspondence with staff, students and alumnae of Ginling College 1927-56; papers
and photographs relating to Ginling College; personal and family papers and photographs;
subject files; texts of talks, lectures and sermons given by Spicer; copies of reports
to the LMS and related papers; offprints of articles written by Spicer; miscellaneous
items comprising China- related newsletters, journals and other printed and published
materials.
Eva Dykes Spicer was born on 29th May 1898 at 10, Lancaster Gate, London W2, one of
eight daughters of Sir Albert Spicer (1847-1934) and of Jessie Spicer, née Jessie
Stewart Dykes. There were in all eleven children: (Albert) Dykes, Marion, Bertha,
Grace, Stewart, Janet, Lancelot, Gwendolen, Eva, Olga and Ursula. Her father, Albert
Spicer, created a baronet in 1906, was a Liberal Member of Parliament for many years
and a driving force in promoting nonconformist, and particularly Congregationalist,
causes. He was one of the founders of Mansfield College, Oxford (intended to provide
training for nonconformist clergymen) and a director, and treasurer for twenty-five
years, of the London Missionary Society (LMS), largely a Congregationalist body.
In her early childhood Eva Spicer attended Norland Place School, Holland Park. She
later went as a boarder to St Leonard's School, then an all-girls' school in St Andrews,
Scotland. Between 1917 and 1920 she read history at Somerville College, Oxford, obtaining
a 2nd Class Honours Degree. At University she was an active member of the Student
Christian Movement and, in her final year, was elected Senior Student of her college.
Almost immediately after graduating in 1920 she wrote to the Secretary of the LMS,
enquiring about opportunities for missionary service. She said later that she had
been attracted as a child "by the romance of the appeal" and all that she had learnt
had, "on the whole, tended to strengthen rather than weaken" that "early desire."
After teacher training at the London Day Training College, later the Institute of
Education, and a spell at Mansfield College, where she followed courses in pastoral
and teaching work, she left for China in August 1923.
She had been appointed to teach Religious Studies and to assist in directing religious
activities at a new women's college in Nanking [Nanjing]. Ginling [Jinling] College
had been founded in 1913 with the support of a number of American mission boards.
In April 1923 the LMS had agreed to support the college by contributing the services
"of a self-supporting lady missionary". Spicer was the first and for much of the
time the only British member of staff. Her arrival, at the start of the academic year
1923-24, co-incided with the move of the college to a spacious, almost palatial, new
campus greatly enhancing the college's reputation and standing.
Most of Spicer's first year was spent in learning Chinese at Nanking University's
language school and in getting used to a college very much run on American lines.
By the following year she was teaching Old Testament studies; the life of Christ,
and Christian social and ethical teachings for fourteen hours a week, as well as advising
the College branch of the Young Women's Christian Association. Most of the teaching
at Ginling was in English yet Spicer continued her Chinese language studies for a
number of years. Whilst bemoaning her lack of knowledge of her students' backgrounds
she became aware of the pressures on them arising out of the May 30th incident of
1925 which precipitated a widespread patriotic movement. Despite students absenting
themselves from classes to engage in rallies and marches, Spicer felt that "the inner
fellowship of the college [was] strengthened rather than weakened" by these events.
Two years later Ginling College experienced even greater turbulence. On March 24th
1927 troops of the Northern Expedition army of Chiang Kai-shek entered Nanking. As
the army entered Nanking on 23rd March militant elements began seeking out foreign
residents. A number were killed, including the American Dean of Nanking University.
There was also widespread looting and rioting. American and British gunboats on the
Yangtze attempted to restore order by firing on the rioters. At Ginling, Chinese faculty,
with support from an army officer, a brother of one of the students, took foreign
members of staff to a safe hiding place. The next day the Ginling party and other
foreign residents, mainly from the University, were escorted to the river and the
waiting gunboats, which took them to the safety of the International Settlement at
Shanghai. From there Spicer decided to anticipate her furlough, due later that year,
and journeyed to the UK via the USA. She returned to Ginling in September 1928 to
find an increased number of Chinese colleagues while Thurston had been replaced as
President by a graduate of Ginling, Dr Wu Yi-fang. It now fell to Dr Wu to guide the
College through to registration with the ministry of education, a thorny task involving
negotiations not only with Government but also with the Ginling College Committee
in New York. The new regulations called for the disbanding of the department of religion
which meant that Spicer had to teach her courses within the department of philosophy
nor could these constitute a major element of the B.A. course.
The following years were relatively peaceful although the Japanese invasion of Manchuria
in 1931 led to consular calls for foreign staff to leave. Spicer was one of the few
to remain. Staff and student numbers were almost back to normal a few months later.
When the Sino-Japanese War broke out in July 1937 it was judged too dangerous to begin
the new session at Ginling in September and alternative arrangements were made. Spicer,
who had been on holiday in Kuling, travelled to Hankow [Wuhan] where a group of Ginling
students were based at Hwa Chung Christian University. Another unit was housed in
Shanghai and a third in Chengtu [Chengdu]. In 1938 the decision was taken to migrate
the College as a whole to the safety of western China where the West China Union University
(WCUU) at Chengtu hosted Ginling faculty and students as well as those of a number
of other migrated institutions. After a short spell in Shanghai, with at least one
visit to Nanking, Spicer arrived in Chengtu in September 1938. (A skeleton staff of
three, two Chinese colleagues and Minnie Vautrin, Ginling's dean of studies were left
in charge of the College campus in Nanking. That city fell to the Japanese in December
and the campus was soon harbouring several thousand women and children, as part of
the agreed Safety Zone.) In December 1938 Spicer attended the conference organised
by the International Missionary Council at Madras [Chennai], India as one of the delegates
from China. Her trip back to west China included an adventurous journey, by road from
Rangoon to Kunming, in January 1939.
Spicer postponed her furlough, due in 1939, until 1940 spending the second half of
that year, first in the US, before going on to Britain where she remained until September
1941. Her return journey to West China travelling via South Africa and India coincided
with the outbreak of war in the Pacific and took several months. In February 1942
after an absence of 18 months she reached Chengtu, where she noticed both a huge rise
in the cost of living as well as a widespread lowering of morale. At Ginling she now
found herself teaching history, since the College had been forced to close its department
of philosophy. She was allowed to teach one course in the sociology of religion and
also taught a course in comparative religion at Nanking Theological Seminary, also
accommodated at WCUU. Throughout her time in Chengtu Spicer took an active role in
University affairs chairing both the Advisory Committee for Joint Religious Activities
of the different institutions at WCUU and the Committee for Student Evangelism in
Isolated Universities. She also served as Chairman of the Sino-British Cultural Association
hosting occasional visits by notable visitors to Chengtu such as Professor E.R. Dodds
and Dr Joseph Needham.
Ginling College was one of the first colleges to return to Nanking after the conclusion
of the war against Japan in the summer of 1946. Viewed from the exterior the College
buildings seemed more or less intact. But inside it was a different story - radiators
and furnaces had been removed; most of the furniture was missing; the library was
empty and all laboratory equipment had been removed. Despite all this the new session
started on time while a fundraising campaign was launched to replace books and equipment.
Spicer was out of China, on furlough during 1947 and 1948. In London she found her
two oldest sisters, Marion and Bertha so much in need of support that she thought
she should extend her stay. But Dr Wu urgently requested her return and her help in
ordering replacement equipment and library materials. For Spicer, Ginling's need was
the deciding factor and she flew back to China (her first flight) in August 1948 for
what turned out to the last brief chapter of her time in China.
Life at Ginling proceeded reasonably for a while after the Communist takeover of Nanjing
in April 1949 but conditions for Westerners became progressively more difficult and
in November 1950 Spicer took the decision to leave. In early January 1951 she began
her journey home via Shanghai and Hong Kong. On returning to the United Kingdom she
began to consider her options for further missionary service. After rejecting possibilities
in Hong Kong and Singapore partly because she thought this might harm Dr Wu's position
in Nanking, she decided to accept the position of Principal of the Women's Training
College at Umuahia, Southern Nigeria. This meant being seconded to the Church Missionary
Society although she remained a member of the LMS. She sailed for Nigeria in April
1952 and remained in post, at Umuahia, except for a period of ill-health in 1953,
until she retired in 1958. Her retirement was an active one. She was Chairman of the
London Congregational Union from 1972 to 1973 and was also involved in the Society
for the Ministry of Women in the Church. She kept closely in touch with the Ginling
"family" visiting Ginling groups in the USA and Canada and sending out an annual letter
at Christmas each year. She died suddenly in 1974 at the age of 76.
Donated to SOAS Library in 2006.
The collection has been arranged into 5 series: letters (originals, drafts and copies)
written by Spicer mainly to members of her family; personal and family papers and
correspondence; correspondence and papers relating to Ginling College, its faculty,
students and alumnae; subject files; China-related miscellaneous materials.
Rights to access and re-use digital objects:
Unknown
For permission to publish, please contact Archives & Special Collections, SOAS Library
in the first instance
Copyright held by SOAS, University of London
The School of Oriental and African Studies holds the records of the London Missionary
Society (Ref: CWM/LMS). These include Spicer's application papers, her official letters
and reports.
Files relating to Ginling College are held in the archive of the United Board for
Christian Higher Education in Asia at Yale Divinity Library and in the Second Historical
Archives of China at Nanjing.
Collection listed by Rosemary Seton.
Subjects:
Missionaries
Missionary work
Educational missionary work
Education
Women
Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)
Geographic names:
Chengdu, Sichuan, China, Asia
China, Asia
Eastern Asia
Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, Asia
Nigeria, Africa
Umuahia, Umuahia North, Abia, Nigeria, Africa
Personal names:Spicer; Eva Dykes (1898-1974); educational missionary
Spicer; Eva Dykes (1898-1974); educational missionary
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Archives, University of London
