Anthony James Broomhall

Anthony James Broomhall, China Inland Mission missionary among the Nosu (Yi) people in Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and Nosuland, China, and the Mangyan people of Mindoro in the Philippines, was from a family with strong missionary connections in China. The grandson of Benjamin Broomhall and great-nephew of Hudson Taylor he was born in Yantai (earlier known as Chefoo), China in 1911. He was educated in China and in Bath, England, then trained at London Hospital graduating as a doctor in 1937. Broomhall had been interested in the Nosu (Yi people) of southwest China since reading a book about them as a teenager and, in 1938, he sailed for China with the China Inland Mission (CIM).

At first Broomhall's movements were restricted partly by the need to learn the language but also by the Japanese occupation and he spent some time at the CIM hospital at Langzhong. In 1942 he married Theodora Janet Churchill and they began pioneer work amongst the Nosu but the war with the Japanese soon forced them to flee to India. They were able to return in 1946 and continued their evangelical and medical work among the Nosu, especially in Liangshan, until, with the arrival of the Communist Party of China, they and their four daughters were placed under house arrest. In 1951 they were expelled but Broomhall continued to work for the mission. He explored the possibility of medical work in Thailand which led to three CIM hospitals being established there.

In 1953 Broomhall and his wife began pioneering among the Mangyan people of Mindoro in the Philippines where they stayed for 11 years. A gifted writer, Broomhall published several works most notably Hudson Taylor and China's Open Century, a seven volume history of Christianity in China since the mid 19th century written during his retirement. Despite ill health he returned to China twice in 1988 and in 1991 when he met the descendants of the Nosu people with whom he had worked. He also raised money for hospitals in China and donated medical equipment and textbooks. He died on 11 May 1994 in England.

From the guide to the Collection of Anthony James Broomhall, 1890-1975, (Centre for the Study of World Christianity)