The early 19th-century was a time of great change in English society. The growth of Humanism brought debates about slavery, workers’ rights and suffrage, while Britain’s determination to build an empire offered ambitious young men the chance to make their mark. Against this backdrop, 19-year-old Walter Medhurst was finding his way in the world, becoming an apprentice printer when family financial problems forced an abrupt end to his studies at the prestigious St Paul’s school. A chance encounter with an inspiring preacher in his hometown of Gloucester, at a time when Evangelical Christianity was starting to fire the public’s imagination, brought about Walter’s conversion, and the picture was complete.

Walter Medhurst – printer, missionary, adventurer – was primed to embark on the mission of a lifetime: to take the Lord’s word to the people of the exotic Far East, and change the world forever. China was a closed society by order of its Emperor and, even then, its trade potential highly prized. Walter and wife Betty – a beautiful young Anglo-Indian widow and officer’s daughter with whom Walter fell in love and married during a three-month stop in Madras – would spend more than 20 years working with Chinese communities throughout Asia before Walter reached China’s shores in 1835. When the Medhursts finally settled in Shanghai in 1843, they were delighted to find – contrary to popular belief – an outgoing and resourceful people more than willing to interact with them. Dealing with Chinese authorities, however, required great diplomacy and tact and the formidable Medhursts employed every skill in their considerable arsenal to achieve their goal, establishing the LMS Mission Centre in Shanghai.

When he died in 1857, Walter Medhurst left behind a great legacy that included the Parapattan Orphanage, All Saints’ Jakarta, Renji Hospital, the Shanghai Mission Press and a Chinese Bible that was used for more than 70 years. But Walter’s greatest achievement was surely the opening up of China to the West, a lasting legacy that affects our world even today.

John Holliday served in the Royal Air Force before going into the IT business in the UK and then Australia. A visit to a still-functioning orphanage in Jakarta founded more than 180 years before by his ancestor, Walter Medhurst, kindled his interest in recording Walter’s life.