Cornaby, W. Arthur (William Arthur), 1860-1921

William Arthur Cornaby was born in Sydenham in London in 1861, the sixth child in a family of 12 children. He attended the School of Mines in South Kensington and became a chemistry demonstrator at Clifton College in Bristol. In 1883 he decided to enter the ministry and was admitted to Richmond College in that year. Following two years at the college he was sent out to Hankow [Wuhan] in central China as a missionary with the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society. In 1889 he married Margaret Baker and in 1895 was appointed to Hanyang where, in addition to running a church and school, he became the editor of The Chinese Christian Review , a monthly Chinese magazine for preachers. In 1905 he was appointed to take up literary work in Shanghai with the Christian Literature Society under the direction of Timothy Richard. His chief work was to edit the Ta Tung Pao, a weekly magazine targeted at Chinese officials and scholars. Cornaby’s first wife, Margaret died in 1915 and, in 1916, he married a friend of the family, Emma Foggitt of the London Missionary Society. In 1919 Cornaby, already suffering from malaria, contracted tuberculosis. He died at Kuling in 1921.

From the guide to the Cornaby, William Arthur, ca. 1885-1897, (School of Oriental and African Studies)