Polhill, Cecil Henry., 1860-1938

Cecil Henry Polhill, China Inland Mission missionary in China and promoter of Pentecostal missions, was born into the wealthy Polhill-Turner family in 1860. His father was a former Member of Parliament and the family lived at Howbury Hall, near Bedford. Like Arthur, his younger brother, Polhill attended Eton and then Cambridge University, Arthur studying at Trinity and Cecil at Jesus. It was while he was at Cambridge in 1882 that Arthur Polhill heard D. L. Moody speak and decided to devote his life to God. Cecil Polhill, who had become an army officer, was influenced by his brother and was converted in 1884.

In 1885, they decided to become missionaries and in September of that year arrived in China with five other Cambridge graduates as part of the 'Cambridge Seven'. The Polhills went to Hanzhong in Shaanxi where they studied Mandarin then in 1887 moved into Sichuan. Arthur was at first based at Paoning then moved in 1888, the same year that he was ordained, to Pachei where he remained until 1898. From 1899 he and his wife (Miss Drake, a China Inland Mission missionary in China since 1884) were based at Suiting. Polhill's wife died in 1906 and he married A. A. Hart in 1908 and continued his evangelical work at Suiting until he retired in 1928.

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