More about faith

Since my previous post on the subject, I’ve done more research and by chance received some information from a fellow poster from another site. One of my original questions involved “how and when my family became involved in “Christian Science” My initial thinking was that it took place in Hong Kong about the time my mother was born ( 1911 ) as the church had established itself there around that date. One thought was that my grandparents had turned away from whatever religion they adhered to ( if any ) because they had lost their first born daughter ( Phoebe Mildred, 1910 ) at just a week old, and that possibly the church they belonged to didn’t show ample support during what must have been a very difficult period. Well, it seem this was not the case.

My grandfather married at St Andrew’s Church, at Kowloon in 1909 and his brother George also married at an Anglican Church, in Leeds England the same year. Their sister May Hunter, married at St John’s Cathedral, Hong Kong, in 1903. My mother, Iris Maud ( bn 1911 ) and her sister Nora Eileen ( bn 1912 ) were both born in Kowloon and baptised at St Andrew’s Church. My grandfather moved his family to Shanghai about 1919 to partner in Geddes Trading with his brother in law Thomas Cock ( his sister’s husband ) So, up until the Shanghai move, I’m assuming CS was not the religious affiliation of any of them.

My mother and her sister were sent to school in Bournemouth England in 1924 and remained there until 1928. Their aunt May and their four cousins, Edna, Alwyn, Inez, and Eunice were already in England. The younger two girls also attended Bournemouth School for Girls and Alwyn went to the boys school there. As to religion, I recalled the following entry in their diary which was made in their final year:

March 28, 1928 Wednesday (88-278) First Quarter 11.54 a.m. This morning Iris made a Dundee cake for daddy. We hope it will not be stale by Tuesday. Auntie May and Uncle Tom said goodbye to us at about 2 o’clock and brought us a parcel from Auntie Joe. There were two lovely and embroidered petticoats for us. We then went to our last confirmation class and Mr. Moore gave us each a book called “Communion and Offering”

So it seems reasonable to assume that CS has not taken hold of our family at this juncture. School ended, and in early September, they set said aboard the SS Saarbrucken from Rotterdam to Shanghai, arriving at noon on October 27th, 1928.

Almost exactly three years later, on October 10th, 1931, my mother married Tom Beesley at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Shanghai. There is no sign of CS on either side at this point.

By the time I was born in 1945, we were CS so the window of opportunity opened prior to that. One possibility is during the war years and my grandfather’s internment in Shanghai, but my mother and her sister were in the USA from 1941 on, so the window opening gets narrower yet….1931-1941? I must now go back through old letters to see if there is any mention of CS among local family members in the US or UK.

*As a side note to all this, Alwyn Leland Jr, the grandson of May and Tom Cock, is quite a devout Catholic.