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Dr Ralph Wardlaw Thompson: born into a London Missionary Society (LMS) family at Bellary, southern India, 1842; son of the Rev William Thompson and Jessie Crawford (daughter of the Rev Dr Ralph Wardlaw); moved to South Africa when his father became the LMS agent there; educated at the South African College, Cape Town; BA, University of the Cape of Good Hope; returned to England, but poor health prevented him from becoming a missionary, 1861; minister of Ewing Place Congregational Church, Glasgow, 1865-1870; minister of Norwood Congregational Church, Liverpool, 1871-1880; elected to the Board of Directors of the LMS, 1874; foreign secretary of the LMS, 1881-1914; visited missions in India, China, South Africa, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, and the South Seas; Chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales, 1908; leader at the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference, 1910; first chairman of the Conference of British Missionary Societies; retired, 1914; Doctor of Divinity, Glasgow University and Edinburgh University; died, 1916. For further information see Basil Mathews, Dr Ralph Wardlaw Thompson (1917). Publications include: with Arthur N Johnson, British Foreign Missions 1837-1897 (1899); My Trip on the `John Williams' (1900); Griffith John: the story of 50 Years in China (1906).

Dr Ralph Wardlaw: born at Dalkeith, Mid-Lothian, Scotland, 1779; educated at the grammar school, Glasgow; matriculated at Glasgow University, 1791; entered the theological school; came under evangelical influence; completed his studies, 1800; became a Congregationalist; an independent chapel was erected for him in North Albion Street, Glasgow, 1803; married Jane Smith, 1803; eleven children; professor of systematic theology at the newly-founded Glasgow Theological Academy, 1811; secretary of the Glasgow auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society and actively interested in the London Missionary Society; active in the anti-slavery movement; Doctor of Divinity, Yale College, Connecticut, 1818; a larger chapel was erected for him in West George Street, Glasgow, 1819; maintained his connection with his Glasgow chapel until his death; prominent in Britain and America as an author on theological questions; died at Easterhouse, 1853. Publications: various theological writings.

Dr John Smith Wardlaw: born, 1813; son of Ralph Wardlaw; LMS missionary in India; at Bellary, 1842-1855; at Vizagapatam, 1855-1858; returned to England, 1858; president of Farquhar House, Highgate (an LMS institute for training missionaries), 1863; Doctor of Divinity, Glasgow University, 1870; died, 1872.

Born at Harbertonford, Devon, England, 1866; studied at Western College; appointed London Missionary Society (LMS) missionary to the Fly River District, Papua, ordained in Plymouth, and travelled to Papua, 1893; visited the Fly River and Western Stations and returned to Thursday Island; at Port Moresby for a time; appointed to the Elema district and settled at Jokea, 1894; visited the mission stations in the (Torres) Straits and Fly River and returned to Jokea, 1895; to benefit his health, went with the mission ship the SS John Williams IV on its round of visits to the South Sea stations, 1896; returned to Papua and moved to Orokolo, 1897; visited England and married Alice Middleton (d 1941) in Plymouth, 1901; returned with his wife to Papua, 1902; volunteered to move to the Purari Delta, 1904; visited Australia to superintend the construction of a launch, the Purari, 1905; settled at Urika, 1906; visited Australia for health reasons, 1911; went to Sydney for his wife's health, 1917; the couple returned to England, 1919; retired from active service, 1920; an authority on the Elema cultures; died in Streatham, London, 1934. Publications: By Canoe to Cannibal Land (1923); In Primitive New Guinea (1924); Way back in Papua (1926).

The Japan Evangelistic Band (JEB) was founded in 1903 as a non-denominational fellowship of Japanese and expatriate missionaries dedicated to personal holiness and aggressive evangelism. The JEB's primary field was the Kinki area of South West Japan and the island of Shikoku and, from time to time, missionaries worked among Japanese living on the West Coast of Canada and the USA, and in the UK. In 1999 the organisation adopted the name Japan Christian Link for operations in the UK, though work in Japan continues under the name of JEB.

The JEB was co-founded by the Rev Barclay Fowell Buxton (1860-1946) and Alpheus Paget Wilkes (1871-1934). In 1890 Buxton went to Japan as an independent missionary with the British Church Missionary Society. He invited Wilkes to join him as a lay helper in 1897, and the two worked together at Matsue in Western Japan, before returning to England. The JEB was formally launched at the Keswick Convention in 1903, where Buxton and Wilkes were joined by a small group of friends who shared their concern for evangelism in Japan. Among the group was Thomas Hogben, the founder of the One by One Working Band, a group devoted to personal evangelism, and at first the new mission was known as the One by One Band of Japan. Nine months after Keswick, the name was changed to Japan Evangelistic Band, or 'Kyodan Nihon Dendo Tai' in Japanese. The JEB was incorporated under the Religious Incorporation Law and became a Registered Charity (Number 21834).

Members of the JEB were drawn from a variety of denominations or from none. Wilkes envisioned 'a band of men ... who detaching themselves from the responsibilities and entanglements of ecclesiastical organisation, would give themselves to prayer and ministry of the Word...'. Both Japanese and missionary workers were included in the Band from the start. Expatriate workers came from North America, South Africa and Australia as well as the British Isles. The mission was never numerically large, probably numbering never more than 30 missionaries at one time. Japanese workers were greater in number.

The original aim of the JEB was to 'initiate and sustain evangelistic work among Japanese wherever they are found'. It did not see itself as a missionary society, seeking to plant new churches and withdraw, but rather as an evangelising agency assisting existing missions and churches and organising Christian Conventions for Bible Study and Prayer.

Wilkes led the first missionary party to Japan in October 1903. He served briefly in Yokohama and Tokyo, then moved south west to Kobe, which became the centre of JEB activity. In 1905 two central works were started to provide for the training of an indigenous ministry for the long-term continuation of the work: the Kobe Mission Hall and the JEB Kansai Bible College.

By the 1920s other missions were finding their own experts in evangelism and invitations received by the JEB were not sufficient to fill the time of its workers. Facing this situation, the JEB decided to launch its own forward outreach work. Band workers went out into rural towns and villages where no Christian work had yet been done. Full salvation and missionary literature was printed and circulated. Churches were started in about 100 centres. The JEB intended that these churches would be linked with existing Japanese denominational churches, to avoid the formation of another denomination. However, the JEB-inspired churches conferred together and decided they would prefer to be linked together in their own denomination. In 1938 many of them withdrew from the denominations they had joined and formed a separate denomination called the Nihon Iesu Kirisuto Kyokwai (NIKK) or Japan Church of Christ. Subsequently new churches were invited to link up with this group or remain independent. Most continued to join the NIKK, but there were a few churches in other denominations.

World War Two brought a temporary halt to work, but some of the Japanese members were able to continue a limited evangelistic activity through the war. The Mission Hall in Kobe and the Kansai Bible College were destroyed in a bombing raid in 1945, though both were later rebuilt. JEB missionaries returned to Japan in late 1947 and they began to work on new housing estates that were growing up on the outskirts of cities. Miss Irene Webster Smith started a centre for students in Tokyo. The 1950s saw new outreach into Wakayama Ken, first to the far south in Susami and Kushimoto, then later to Minoshima and Kainan and later to Kozagawa. There was also outreach to Shikoku Island where work commenced in Tokushima Ken at Tachitana then in Hanoura and Naruto, while a separate venture was started in Shido, Kagawa Ken. Work also started in Wajiki. Churches started in Tachitana and Naruto. Another outreach of the 1950s was the work in Northern Hyogo Ken. Later interest in the area moved over the prefectural boundary into Kyoto Fu, where work started in the mountainous districts around Amano Hashidate. In 1952 the JEB absorbed the Japan Rescue Mission, which had worked to save girls likely to be sold to the licensed prostitution system. By 1950 licensed prostitution had been abolished and the work was no longer necessary, so the missionaries were redirected to other JEB activities.

In the UK, JEB members worked among Japanese seamen arriving at the docks in Birkenhead. Conventions were held regularly at Swanwick, Derbyshire, in June, and at Southbourne, in August. From the early days of the JEB there was children's work, whose objective was to win children for the Lord in the home countries and to set them to pray and work for the children of Japan. The Young People's Branch of the JEB was called the Sunrise Band until 1977, when the name was changed to Japan Sunrise Fellowship.

The parent body of the JEB was the British Home Council. Barclay Buxton was the first Chairman, and he was succeeded by his son, Godfrey Buxton. Eric William Gosden became the Chairman in the late 1970s. A General Secretary was responsible for the day-to-day administration of the JEB. Among the subsidiaries reporting to the British Home Council were Regional Committees, the Japan Christian Union, Seamen's Work in Birkenhead, and the Sunrise Band Committee. In 1947 the British Home Council appointed a Publications Committee to 'co-opt, plan, produce and supervise all publications of the JEB and the Sunrise Band'. From September 1955 this committee was known as the Literature Committee. Other sub-committees were formed as needed. In the early years, the British office of the JEB was no 55 Gower Street, London. In May 1962, it purchased as the British headquarters and office no 26 Woodside Park Road, North Finchley, London. This property was sold in 1983, and the JEB bought new headquarters at no 275 London Road, North End, Portsmouth.

The Japan Council directed work in the Japanese field. There were always a majority of Japanese members, usually five against three expatriates.

The year 1999 saw a strategic reorganisation. The renamed Japan Christian Link refocused its work on expatriate Japanese, mainly in Europe. Work in Japan continues to be known as the JEB, and is now under the direction of Japanese workers.

Janet Dann (1899-1986) was a missionary first with the Japan Rescue Mission, then the JEB.

For further information see: Eric W Gosden, Thank You, Lord! The eightieth anniversary of the Japan Evangelistic Band 1903-1983 (1982); Eric W Gosden, The Other Ninety-Nine: the Persisting Challenge of Modern-Day Japan (1982); B Godfrey Buxton, The Reward of Faith in the Life of Barclay Fowell Buxton 1860-1946 (1949).

Born 13 August 1888, Eve was the third daughter of the Reverend John Edwards. After completing her studies at Redbrook College, Camborne, Islington College and a preparatory course at the St Colm's Missionary College, Edinburgh, she travelled to China where she enrolled at the Peking Language School to study Chinese. Two years later in 1915, she was appointed Principal of the Women's Normal College in Mukden - a training College for Chinese teachers. Continuing her studies during this time she attained the diploma in Chinese (Mandarin and Classical) from the Peking Language School in 1918.

Returning to England at the end of the First World War, she accepted a lectureship at the School Of Oriental and African Studies in 1921. Combining work and study, she obtained a BA Hons in Chinese (1924) and MA in Chinese (with distinction) (1925) from the University of London. In 1931 the University conferred on her the degree Doctor of Literature for her work on T'ang fiction. She was also appointed Reader in Chinese, a position she held until 1939 when she became Professor of Chinese. From 1937-1939 she was Acting Head of the Far East Department, then Head and Chair of Chinese until 1953. In 1951 she was also appointed Acting Head of the Percival David Foundation, a post she held until her retirement from the School in 1955. For many years she served on the council of the China Society (1925-1944). After the close of the war she visited the Far East, South East Asia and Pacific in order to follow up those in the armed services who had received training from the School. She died in 1957.

She published a number of works including Chinese prose and literature of the T'ang period (2 vols, London 1937-38), Confucius (1940), and two anthologies Dragon Book (1938) and Bamboo, Lotus and Palm (1948). She contributed articles to the Bulletin, and Asia Major, a British journal of Far Eastern Studies, as well as serving on its Editorial Board from 1941 - 1955. She also contributed reviews to the Bulletin and the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. She translated M. Granet's Festivals and Songs of Ancient China (London, 1932) into English, and jointly published A Chinese vocabulary of Malacca Malay words and phrases (BSOS, vi, 3, 1931) and A Chinese vocabulary of Cham words and phrases (BSOS, x,1,1939) with Prof. C O Blagden.

Harry Hamilton Johnston was born on 12 June 1858, in Kennington, London. He was educated at Stockwell Grammar School, Kings College London and from 1876-1880 he was a student of the Royal Academy of Arts. He travelled to North Africa, 1879-1880. He explored Portugese West Africa and the Congo River, 1882-1883. In 1884 he commanded a Scientific Expedition of the Royal Society to Mt. Kilimanjaro.

He served in the Consular Service in Africa from 1885-1901. He was H.M. Vice-Consul in the Cameroons, 1885; Acting-Consul in the Niger Coast Protectorate, 1887; Consul for the Province of Mozambique, 1888. In 1889, his expedition to Lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika led to the foundation of the British Central Africa Protectorate. He became Commissioner and Consul-General of the British Central Africa Protectorate in 1891; Consul-General for the Regency of Tunis, 1897-1899; and Special Commissioner, Commander-in-Chief and Consul-General for the Uganda Protectorate, 1899-1901.

He was married to the Hon. Winifred Irby, O.B.E. He was awarded the K.C.B. in 1896, and the G.C.M.G in 1901. He died on 31 July 1927.

Harry Hamilton Johnston published numerous works including A Comparative Study of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu Languages (Oxford University Press, 1919).

Robert Hart (Chinese name He De) was born in Milltown, Co Armagh, on 20 February 1835. He was educated at Queen's College, Taunton, Wesley College, Dublin, and Queen's College, Belfast, where he received a BA in 1853. The following year he entered the consular service, working in Hong Kong, Ningo and Canton before resigning in 1859 to join the Chinese Maritime Customs. After working as Deputy Commissioner in Canton and Commissioner in Shanghai he was appointed as the first Inspector General in 1863. He held this post for nearly fifty years until his death and his commitment to the service led him to refuse the post of British Minister to China in 1885. As well as his work in the Customs he was used by the Quing government to further their aims in dealing with foreign powers. He became supreme advisor to Zongli Yamen (the Chinese office dealing with foreign affairs). On behalf of the Quing government he arranged the Lisbon Protocol in 1885 after negotiations with the Portugese over Macao. He negotiated with the Indian government over Sikkim and with the British over navigation of the Yangtze River. His efforts led to his receiving honours from a number of countries including Italy, Portugal, Norway, and Holland, and a number of Chinese honours. He gained an honorary doctorate in 1882. He was also asked to help with efforts towards 'modernisation' such as the establishment of the Chinese postal system and the establishment of Tong Wen Guan (Institute of Education).

In 1866 he married Hestor Jane Bredon and they had three children including a son, Bruce, who took over from J D Campbell in the London office in 1907. He also had three children from an earlier liaison with a Chinese woman. These children he supported as his 'wards'. Hestor's brother, Robert, was also a member of the Chinese Maritime Customs and became Acting Inspector General when Hart returned to England from 1908 until 1910. In 1901 he wrote These from the Land of Sinim. He died on 20 September 1911.

Sir Francis Arthur Aglen joined the Chinese Maritime Customs in 1888. He was Acting Inspector-General in 1910 before succeeding Sir Robert Hart. He retired as Inspector-General in 1928.

The Imperial Maritime Customs (later called the Chinese Maritime Customs) collected customs duties from foreign ships at treaty ports and administered port facilities on behalf of the Chinese government. It was managed and staffed mainly by foreigners, largely British.

Allison Wessels George Champion ('Mahlath' amnyama') was born in 1893. He was known as a campaigner for racial equality, devoting his life to the betterment of Zulu people. Positions held during his career included Natal Provincial Secretary of the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union; founder member and Provincial President of the African National Congress; Chairman of the then Durban Combined Bantu Advisory Board; and central committee member of Inkatha Kwazulu. He also wrote a regular column for Ilanga (newspaper) entitled 'Okubanwa ngumahlathi' ('As seen by Mahlathi'). Champion died at his home in Chesterville in 1975. He was about to be returned without opposition to a position he had held as a member of the Ningizimu Urban Bantu Council.

Basil Davidson was born on 9 November 1914. He was a member of the editorial staff of the Economist, 1938-1939. Following a brief spell as diplomatic correspondence for The Star in 1939, Davidson joined the army, serving throughout the European sphere of conflict, including a spell in Italy resulting in his receiving the Freedom of the City of Genoa in 1945. After the war he continued his work as a journalist, as Paris correspondent for The Times until 1949. He subsequently worked for the New Statesman, 1950-1954, for the Daily Herald, 1954-1957, and as leader-writer for the Daily Mirror, 1959-1962.

Since his 1952 Report on South Africa Davidson has written over twenty books on Africa and a number of novels. His publications on Portuguese Africa include In the Eye of the Storm: Angola's People (1972). He was also responsible for an eight-part television documentary on Africa in 1984. Since 1978 he has been an Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Birmingham and has received Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Ibadan (1975), Dar es Salaam (1985), Open University (1980) and Edinburgh (1981).

Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje was born on 9 October 1876, in the district of Boshof, Orange Free State, South Africa. His parents were Barolongs, coming originally from Thaba Ncho, and trekking eventually to Mafeking. He was educated at Pneil Mission Station (Berlin Missionary Society), near Barkly West, until he passed the fourth standard. He then worked as a student teacher, continuing his study through private lessons from the Rev. G. E. Westphal. In March 1894 he joined the Cape Government Service as a letter-carrier in the Kimberley Post Office. In his own time he studied languages and passed the Cape Civil Service examination in typewriting, Dutch and native languages. In 1898 he was transferred to Mafeking as interpreter, and during the Siege of Mafeking at the outbreak of the Boer War in 1899, he was appointed Dutch interpreter to the Court of Summary Jurisdiction.

Plaatje decided to become a journalist in order to give a voice to the Bantu people. He edited a number of Bantu language newspapers including Koranta ea Becoana (The Bechuana Gazette) 1902-1905, a weekly paper in English and Sechuana, which was financed by Chief Silas Molema. He then became Editor of Tsala ea Batho (The People's Friend) 1910-c1912.

He was elected First Secretary-General of the South African Native National Congress (forerunner of the African National Congress), 1912-1917. In 1914 and 1919 he was a member of the Congress delegation to London against the Natives' Land Act of 1913.

As a result of financial difficulties he became stranded in London for some time, but used this time to address meetings and to write Sechuana Proverbs. He returned to South Africa in 1917. Plaatje was also a delegate to the first Government Conference held under the Native Affairs Act. He travelled throughout Europe, Canada and the United States to draw attention to the plight of the black South Africans.

He was the author of numerous books including Native Life in South Africa (1915), Sechuana Proverbs and their European Equivalents (1916), and A Sechuana Reader. In 1919 he wrote Mhudi (published in 1930), which was the first published novel written in English by a Black South African.

He died on 19 June 1932.

Further reading: B Willan, Sol Plaatje: South African Nationalist 1876-1932 (Heineman, 1984).

The Chin Hills Battalion was formed in 1894.

Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi was born on 27 August 1928, in what is now the province of Kwazulu-Natal. He was the son of Chief Mathole Buthelezi and Princess Magogo. He was educated at Fort Hare University. He joined the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League while attending college. In 1952 he married Irene Audrey Thandekile Mzila. In 1953 he became Chief of the Buthelezi tribe. He was involved in the administration of the Zulu people from 1953-1968. In 1976 he became the first Chief Minister of Kwazulu (the 'Bantustan' designated for Zulu people under the system of Apartheid). He also revived Inkatha Yenkululeko Yesizwe, the Zulu National Cultural Liberation Movement, as an anti-apartheid organisation, now the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP). In the 1980's tensions mounted between Inkatha and the ANC, and the early 1990's saw increasingly violent clashes between supporters of the two parties. Buthelezi was particularly opposed to the ANC's support for international sanctions against Apartheid. Inkatha boycotted the 1993 multiparty talks that wrote the new South African constitution, but participated in South Africa's first multiracial elections in 1994. In 1994, Buthelezi was appointed Minister of Home Affairs in the cabinet of President Nelson Mandela. In June 1999, Buthelezi declined a conditional offer by the South African President Elect Thabo Mbeki to be Deputy President. The post was offered in exchange for his party's surrender of leadership of Kwazulu-Natal province. It was decided to retain Buthelezi as Minister for Home Affairs when these negotiations collapsed.

The Republic of Biafra was a short-lived secessionist state, established in 1967 by the Ibo (Igbo) people of south-eastern Nigeria. Biafra proclaimed its independence on 30 May 1967 after the Islamic Hausa and Fulani peoples, who dominated the Nigerian federal government, massacred between 10,000 and 30,000 of the Christian Ibo. Lt. Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu (military governor of the Eastern region of Nigeria, 1966-1967) led the new secessionist state of Biafra, 1967-1970. The country took its name from the Bight of Biafra (an arm of the Atlantic Ocean). It comprised roughly the East-Central, South-Eastern and river states of the federation of Nigeria, where the Ibo predominated. Biafra's original capital was Enugu, but Aba, Umuahia and Owerri served successively as provincial capitals after the Nigerian forces captured Enugu. Civil war followed the proclamation of independence, beginning in June 1967. Nigeria imposed economic sanctions on Biafra from the start of the secession, and by 1968 Biafra had lost its seaports and become landlocked. Starvation and disease followed. The Biafrans surrendered on 15 January 1970. Estimates of mortality range from 500,000 to several million.

From at least 1821 the Church Missionary Society advocated the establishment of a permanent post in Jerusalem. The London Jewish Society, which aimed to convert Jews to Christianity, also took an interest in the city. The first permanent station was established in Jerusalem in 1833 and the first Bishop, Michael Solomon Alexander (a converted Jewish Rabbi), arrived in 1841 with the aim of converting Jews and Palestinians to Christianity. The Bishopric started as an Anglo-Prussian union, for Anglicans and Lutherans. In 1845, the first Anglican Church (Christ Church, Jaffa Gate) was dedicated. The second Bishop (1845-1879) was Samuel Gobat von Cremines. After the death of the third Bishop (1879-1881), Joseph Barclay, the Bishopric became a solely Anglican Bishopric, centred on the Cathedral Church of St George, which was built and dedicated in 1898 under the fourth Bishop, George Blyth (d 1914).

Khalil Sakakini (1878-1953) was a Palestinian educationalist and Arab nationalist.

Isa Daoud Al-Isa (1878-1950) was a Palestinian journalist and poet, the co-founder (in 1911) and editor of the Arabic newspaper based in Jaffa, Filastin.

Constance (Ethel) Cousins was born on 22 September 1882, in Antananarivo (Tananarive), Madagascar. She was the daughter of the Rev. William Edward Cousins, missionary to Madagascar with the London Missionary Society, 1862-1899. By 1885, Constance and her siblings had returned to England, where they attended the Walthamstow Hall School for the daughters of missionaries. Constance then attended Oxford University, gaining first class honours in Physiology in 1904.

In 1911, Constance Cousins' application to serve with the London Missionary Society was turned down on the grounds that she displayed the symptoms of latent epilepsy (a diagnosis never subsequently confirmed). In November 1911, she went to the Almora Sanatorium for Tuberculosis in North India as an unpaid medical assistant. The Church of Scotland ran the Sanatorium and in November 1913 she transferred to the Church of Scotland's medical mission at Kalimpong (North India). Her appointment to the mission staff was confirmed in January 1914. During her period of service at Kalimpong (1913-1923) she was requested to help combat a cholera epidemic in neighbouring Bhutan. Thus, in August 1918, she and her assistant, Nurse Brodie, became the first European women to be admitted to that country. In 1923 Cousins returned as a permanent member of staff to the Almora Sanatorium. She also obtained a diploma from the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London. She continued to work at Almora until her death in May 1944.

William Arthur Crabtree was born c1868, at Darlington. He was educated at St. Peter's School, York and King's School, Canterbury. He also attended St. Catharine's College and Ridley Hall, Cambridge. He obtained a BA in 1889. In 1890 he trained at the Church Missionary College. On 23 November 1891 he was posted to the East Equatorial Africa Mission, Frere Town, with the Church Missionary Society. From 1892 to 1906, he worked as a missionary explorer in Uganda. His publications included Elements of Luganda Grammar, Together with Exercises and Vocabulary (1902, revised 1921), A Manual of Lu-Ganda (1921), and Primitive Speech (2 parts, 1922).

The Zimbabwe-Rhodesia Constitutional Conference, held at Lancaster House, London, began on 10 September 1979. The delegates included Lord Carrington, the British Foreign Secretary; Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Prime Minister of Rhodesia since the general election in April, and other members of his Government of National Unity including the former premier, Ian Smith, Joshua Nkomo, head of the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), and Robert Mugabe, head of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), both representing the Patriotic Front. Although none of the participants began the conference with any real expectations that a solution would be reached, after four months of negotiation a settlement was concluded. On 21 December 1979 the delegates signed an agreement to accept a constitution for a new independent Zimbabwe and to implement a cease-fire in the civil war.

James Legge was born on 20 December 1814 at Huntly, Aberdeenshire. He studied at Kings College and the University of Aberdeen, and at Highbury College. He was ordained on 25 April 1839 at Trevor Chapel, Brompton. On 30 April 1839, he married Mary Isabella Morison (1816-1852).

He was appointed to the London Missionary Society (LMS) in 1839, and was posted to China. He arrived at Malacca on 10 January 1840, where he served as Head of the Anglo Chinese Mission in Malacca from 1840 to 1843. In 1842, he received the diploma of D.D. from the University of New York. After the opening of the ports of China, he left Malacca on 6 May 1843 for Singapore. There he began his work translating and annotating the Chinese classics, which he was to continue until shortly before his death. He proceeded to Macao, and arrived at Hong Kong on 10 July 1843. At the Conference of LMS Missionaries that year, he was appointed to the charge of the Anglo-Chinese Theological Seminary at Hong Kong. Between November 1845 and 1848, Mr and Mrs Legge visited England and China, before returning to Hong Kong. Mrs Legge died at Hong Kong on 17 October 1852. During a visit home to England (1858-1859), James Legge married his second wife, Hannah Willetts, widow of the Reverend G. Willetts and daughter of John Johnson. In June 1859, they sailed with his two daughters to Hong Kong.

In 1861, James Legge published his first volume of The Chinese Classics. In 1866, Mrs Legge returned to England, followed by her husband in 1867. In 1870, the degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by the University of Aberdeen. In February 1870, he sailed alone for Hong Kong to take up a three-year Pastorate with the Union Chapel, Hong Kong. At the end of this term he visited the stations at Shanghai, Chefoo and Peking and returned to England via Japan and the United States, arriving in England in August 1873. In November 1873, he withdrew from the position of missionary with the LMS. In 1876 he was appointed to the Chair of Chinese at the University of Oxford. Mrs Hannah Legge died on 21 June 1881. James Legge died on 29 November 1897.

James Legge's publications included: The Chinese Classics, 8 volumes (Trübner & Co.); The Religions of China (Hodder & Stoddington, 1880); also numerous pamphlets on Chinese subjects and translations from Chinese.

Wilson Herbert Geller was born on 26 December 1868 at Thaxted in Essex. He trained at Harley College. In 1897 he was appointed to Siaokan in Central China as Lay Evangelist for the London Missionary Society. On 5 January 1901 he married Mabel Love Neal, also of the London Missionary Society, at Union Church, Hong Kong. His work was mainly pastoral and evangelistic with the oversight of a large country district comprising about 25 churches. He took a large part in the production of a Chinese hymnbook, and composed many of the tunes. He also planned and built Siaokan Church. He retired in 1936, and died on 20 November 1949.

Mabel Love Neal was born on 18 December 1872 at Stoke Newington. She was appointed to Canton and sailed on 9 November 1897. Her chief work in China was building up a Bible school for women, as well as taking part in general work for women and girls at Siaokan Mission. She died on 17 December 1953.

Melville Douglas Mackenzie was born on 29 June 1889, son of Frederick Lumsden Mackenzie. He was educated at Epsom College and then at the University of London where he obtained a degree in Medicine in 1911. He obtained his Doctorate in 1920 and Diplomas in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and Tropical Hygiene in the same year, and in 1921 an additional Diploma in Public Health. He married Caroline Faith Mackay in 1934.

During the First World War, he served as a Captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps (1917-1919). He was the Senior Medical Officer to the Russian Famine Relief Administration (1921-1923). In 1926 he joined the Ministry of Health and in 1928 he was invited to join the Health Organisation of the League of Nations. From 1931-1932 he went as the Special Commissioner to the Council of the League of Nations, to pacify and disarm native tribes - the Kru (Kroo) peoples - and fix new boundaries in Liberia. He was also a member of the Advisory Mission to the Liberian General Health Survey. In 1936 he became the Acting Director of the League of Nations Epidemiological Bureau, Singapore and later became Chairman of the European Health Committee of United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Organization (UNRRA). Later in 1946 he was United Kingdom Delegate, with Plenipotentiary Powers, to the World Health Conference in New York. He died on 1 December 1972.

Emily Dora Earthy (known as Dora Earthy) worked as a missionary in Portugese East Africa (Mozambique) for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, from September 1917 to December 1930. She then obtained a grant from the Research Committee of Bantu Studies of the University of Witwatersrand, to cover six month's fieldwork among the Valenge women of that country, compiling raw material for her book Valenge Women: the social and economic life of the Valenge women of Portugese East Africa (Oxford University Press, 1933).

George Percival Bargery was born in Exeter on 1 October 1876. He was educated at Hele School, Exeter, Islington College and the University of London. He was ordained as a chaplain to the Church Missionary Society in 1899. In 1900 he went to Northern Nigeria, where he served as a missionary until 1910. In that year he was invalided home as unfit for further service in the tropics, but within two years he had been accepted for a post in the Colonial Education Service and was back again in Northern Nigeria, where he remained until 1930. It was for his work during this period that he is best known. After founding the first government school among the Tiv people on the Benue, he turned his attention to the Hausa language and was appointed Government Examiner in it. In 1921 he was seconded by the Governor, Sir Hugh Clifford, to compile a dictionary of that language. His Hausa-English Dictionary was published in 1934 and included the first tonal analysis of the Hausa language. For his work he received a Doctorate in Literature from University of London in 1937.

While he was still working in London on the final stages of the dictionary, Bargery was appointed as Lecturer in Hausa to the School of Oriental Studies. He was made Senior Lecturer in 1935, and Reader in 1937. He did not retire from this post until 1947. After his retirement from the School he continued similar teaching under the Colonial Office at both Oxford and Cambridge until 1953. In 1953, at the age of 77, he returned to Kano at the invitation of the British and Foreign Bible Society, to superintend work on a new Hausa translation of the New Testament. He was awarded the OBE when he returned to England in 1957. He outlived both his wives: Eliza Minnie, whom he married in 1906 and who died in 1932, and Minnie Jane, whom he married eight years later, and who died in 1952. He had one son by his first marriage. Towards the end of his life he was plagued by ill health and became almost totally blind. He died on 2 August 1966.

David Gamble was employed by the Colonial Office during the late 1940s and 1950s, and his published works include extensive monographs on the Fula, Wolof and Mandinka languages of the Gambia. He has also written extensively on Fula custom and the history of the Gambia, and worked at the Department of Anthropology, San Francisco State University, during the 1970s and 1980s. The Fula language is spoken in an area from the Gambia to Guinea Bissau, West Africa. Publications: Contributions to a socio-economic survey of the Gambia (Colonial Office Research Department, 1949); Economic Conditions in Two Mandinka Villages (Colonial Office Research Department, 1953); Mandinka Reading Book (1956); The Wolof of Senegambia ... with notes on the Lebu and the Serer (1957); Bibliography of the Gambia (1967); with Louise Sperling, A general bibliography of the Gambia [1979]; The Gambia (c1988); edited, with P E H Hair, Richard Jobson's The discovery of River Gambra (1999).

The medical missionary Frederick Charles Roberts (1862-1894) was commemorated in the London Missionary Society's Roberts Memorial Hospital, which opened in in T'sangchou (Tsangchow or Changzhou), about 90 miles south of Tientsin (Tianjin) in northern China, in 1903. Its establishment was funded by gifts from the Roberts family and by support from the local community. Its staff included Dr Arthur Davies Peill (1874-1906), who worked for the London Missionary Society as medical missionary to north China from 1896, and his brother Dr Sidney George Peill (1878-1960), medical missionary at Tsangchow from 1907.

Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society missionary to the Gold Coast, west Africa, 1840-1845; worked among indigenous people in Canada in the Hudson Bay district from 1847.

The Advisory Committee on Oriental Materials (ACOOM) was set up in 1980 as an advisory committee of the Standing Conference on National and University Libraries (SCONUL). The organisation acted as a discussion group for matters concerning libraries holding collections of Oriental material, largely university libraries (particularly Durham, Exeter, Cambridge, Hull, Oxford, and the School of Oriental and African Studies) and national libraries such as the various departments of the British Library relating to Oriental materials. ACOOM was formerly known as the SCONUL Group of Orientalist Libraries and in 1991 became the National Council on Orientalist Library Resources.

Born in India, 1898; educated at Rossall School; joined the Machine Gun Corps, 1917; served in France, Germany and southern Russia, 1917-1920; joined the Colonial Administrative Service, 1920; Administrative Officer, Northern Nigeria, 1920-1933; Acting Principal Assistant Secretary, Nigerian Secretariat, 1934-1936; Assistant Resident Commissioner and Government Secretary, Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1936; Resident Commissioner, Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1937-1942; Resident Commissioner, Basutoland, 1942-1946; Knight,1946; Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Sarawak, 1946-1949; Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Gold Coast, 1949-1957; oversaw the independence of Ghana as first Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief, 1957; retired, 1957; Honorary DCL, Durham, 1958; Chairman of the Royal African Society, 1959; Chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind, 1959; Chairman of the National Council for the Supply of Teachers Overseas, 1960; member of the Monckton Commission on central Africa, 1960; died, 1962.

Richard Henry Sabin: born at New Barnet (Hertfordshire), 1904; studied theology at Cheshunt College, Cambridge; BA (Cantab); appointed London Missionary Society (LMS) missionary to Mbereshi, Northern Rhodesia (Zambia); ordained at New Barnet Congregational Church, 1932; married Lucy Mary Hawkins (d 1933), 1932; sailed to Africa, 1932; his service included work at the Bible School for the training of African ministers; married, secondly, Mary Gladstone Hayward (d 1989), 1938; two children, Pauline Mary (b 1939) and Christopher Hubert Henry (b 1940); resigned his connection with the LMS and accepted the pastorate of Claremont Congregational Church, Cape Town, 1941; returned to England, 1944; subsequently Africa Secretary to the United Society for Christian Literature, and minister of churches in Ilkley (Yorkshire), Great Yarmouth (Norfolk), and Wolverhampton (Staffordshire); died in Middesex Hospital, 1969. Richard Sabin's aunt, Margaret Sabin (1887-1978), also served the London Missionary Society at Mbereshi.

Although apartheid was strengthened in the period from 1948, in the preceding period black (African) and 'coloured' (other non-white) inhabitants of the Union of South Africa (established in 1910) were already disadvantaged legally and economically in comparison with white inhabitants. Initiatives to oppose their inferior treatment included the activities of the politican and writer Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje (1876-1932).

The Second Boer War commenced in 1899 when the Transvaal and the Orange Free State declared war on Britain. Initial victories by Boer forces included the capture of Mafeking. Kimberley and Ladysmith were besieged. British reinforcements arrived in 1900 and Kimberley and Ladysmith were relieved, to be followed by Mafeking. The Boer states were annexed by the British and, although the Boers continued a guerrilla campaign, hostilities ended in 1902 with the Treaty of Vereeniging.

Cecil John Rhodes, born in 1853, first went to South Africa in 1870. He was a prominent figure in the history of South Africa as a businessman (he had interests in the Kimberley diamond fields and was founder of the De Beers mining company) and imperial politician (prime minister of Cape Colony, 1890-1896). During the Second Boer War he commanded troops at Kimberley and was besieged there. He died in South Africa in 1902 and was buried in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).

The Boxer Uprising (1898-1900) was a movement against Western influence in China. A secret anti-foreign society, the Boxers (Ch'uan), undertook attacks on foreigners from 1899. In 1900 the Boxers occupied Peking (Beijing). The siege was lifted later that year by an international force which ended the Uprising.

The first mission of the London Missionary Society to Siberia was begun in 1818. Missionaries itinerated and evangelised among the nomadic inhabitants. Edward Stallybrass (c1793-1884) and William Swan (1791-1866) served there until the mission was suppressed by the Russian government in 1840, and the missionaries returned to Britain in 1841.

In the colonial period Cameroon was divided between French and British influence. The French Cameroons achieved independence in 1960. Soon afterwards the British territory was divided, the northern zone being united with Nigeria and the southern incorporated with Cameroon. Agriculture is important to the economy, with bananas among the significant exports.

William Lockhart was born on 3 October 1811 in Liverpool. He trained at the Meath Hospital, Dublin, and Guy's Hospital, London. Joining the London Missionary Society, he was appointed medical missionary to Canton and sailed on 31 July 1838. In 1839 he left Canton to set up a hospital in Macao. Following an arrangement with American missionaries he left Macao for Chusan and reached Tinghae on 13 September 1840. The following year he returned to Macao and married Catherine Parkes. In 1842 he went to Hong Kong then to Chusan and in 1843 arrived at Shanghai and opened a hospital along with Dr. Medhurst. Following a trip home to England, Lockhart visited Peking and worked there from 1861 to 1864. He returned to England permanently in 1864 and retired in 1867. He was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of the London Missionary Society from 1869 to 1870. In 1892 he presented his library to the London Missionary Society. He died on 29 April 1896.

Alan P Hughes is the great-great-grandson of Lockhart.

James Cameron was born on 6 January 1800 at Little Dunkeld in Perthshire. In May 1826 he sailed to Madagascar with the London Missionary Society. Once in Madagascar he helped to set up cotton machinery at Amparibe, in getting the printing press into action, and in other public work. The continuation of the mission from 1829 to 1835 was largely due to the desire of the government to retain the services of Mr. Cameron and other artisans. He taught the Malagasy how to make soap, a circumstance that had an important influence in prolonging missionary work in Madagascar. In consequence of the edict against Christianity, he left the capital in June 1835, and proceeded to Cape Town with his wife. There he established himself in business and became Surveyor to the Corporation of Cape Town. In 1853 he was appointed by the Chamber of Commerce in Mauritius to negotiate with the Malagasy Government for the renewal of trade. In 1863 he returned to Madagascar to superintend the erection of the Memorial Churches. Arriving at Antananarivo, he aided in the erection of the Memorial Church at Ambatonakanga, and built the Children's Church at Faravohitra, and up to the time of his death was engaged in building work both for the mission and for the Government. He died on 3 October 1875.

Rev. Harry Parsons was born on 26 November 1878 in Barnstable and entered the Ministry of the Bible Christian Church in 1899. He served in China from 1902 to 1926. He married Edith Bryant on 24 April 1906 in Yunnanfu. In 1907 the Bible Christian Church united with other sections of Methodism to form the United Methodist Church. He died on 8 July 1952.

Edith Annie Kate Parsons was born on 13 December 1876 near Tiverton. She and Harry Parsons were engaged in 1899 and the Bible Christian Church subsequently accepted her as a lay missionary. She sailed for China in 1904. The Parsons had three children, Elsie, born in Zhaotong in 1910 and the twins, (Richard) Keith and (Philip) Kenneth, born in Zhaotong on 17 September 1916.

Both Philip Kenneth Parsons and Richard Keith Parsons became ordained ministers of the Methodist Church, who served at home and overseas. Philip Kenneth served in the Hupeh Central China District, 1940-1946, South West China District, 1946-1950, and later in Kenya, 1953-1965. Richard Keith served in Hupea District, China, 1942-1950, and later as Educational Secretary, United Christian Council, Sierra Leone District, 1953-1958.

From c.1904, Rev. and Mrs Parsons and Rev. Samuel Pollard (also a missionary in Yunnan with the United Methodist Church) went to live among the Hua Miao tribe at Shimenkan, 25 miles east of Zhaotong. They learnt the Hua Miao language and used a simple phonetic script to reduce it to writing. Philip Kenneth and Richard Keith Parsons continued this work with the Hua Miao language. In 1949, they were approached by Mr Wang Ming-ji regarding the possibility of their compiling a Hua Miao-English Dictionary. Wang Ming-ji had already done a considerable amount of work in grouping Miao words written in the Pollard script, and the Parsons translated and annotated these words and phrases.

Alexander Russell was skipper of various vessels based in Fiji including the John Hunt and the Meda. These ships helped supply missionaries in the region.

Harry Undy was born in 1932. He joined the London Missionary Society in 1959. He worked in Southern Rhodesia until 1974 (continuing work with the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa from its inception in 1967). Amongst his roles in Southern Rhodesia he taught at Hope Fountain. He married Sheila Cheetham in 1954.

The Rev J Martin was a missionary in China, possibly with the Church Missionary Society.

Roger Virgoe was appointed as Lecturer in History at the University of Khartoum, the Sudan, in July 1961. He remained there until 1964. He and his colleagues were witness to the role of the University in political events in the Sudan, in the 1960s.

By the early 1960s there was considerable opposition to the military government established by the Commander-in-Chief of the Sudanese Army, General Ibrahim Abbud. In the coup d'état of 1958, he had dissolved all political parties and set up the Supreme Council of Armed Forces. The policies of the regime were most fiercely opposed in southern Sudan where, in 1963, a revolt broke out against the imposition of Arab rule led by the Anya Nya (a southern Sudanese guerilla organisation).

In October 1964, students at the University of Khartoum held a meeting - in defiance of a government prohibition - to condemn government action in southern Sudan and denounce the military regime. Demonstrations followed, leading to violent clashes with the police during which one student was killed and several injured. A 'National Front' was formed to oppose the government, led by university staff and professionals. The headquarters of the organisation was based at the University. As disorder spread, Abbud was forced to dissolve the ruling Council and resign his position as Head of State. A transitional government was appointed, and elections were held in 1965 to form a representative government.

Born in Galloway, 1907; educated at Wimbledon College; Merton College, Oxford; Assistant Director of the Oxford Archaeological Survey of Nubia, 1929-1934; involved in the discovery, excavation and publication of 4th- and 5th-century AD burial mounds at Ballana and Qustul; Field Director, Oxford University Expeditions to Sudan, 1934-1937; carried out excavations at Kawa, Sudan; Boston and Philadelphia Museums, 1937; Tweedie Fellowship in Archaeology and Anthropology, Edinburgh University, 1937-1939; exploratory journeys, Eastern Sudan and Aden Protectorate, 1938-1939; Territorial Army Reserve of Officers Captain, General Staff, 1939; Major, 1941; Lieutenant-Colonel, 1943; Joint Staffs, Offices of Cabinet and Ministry of Defence, 1942-1945; Editor, Geographical Journal, 1945-1978; Librarian, Royal Geographical Society, and subsequently Secretary; Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel, 1957; CMG, 1958; President, British Institute in Eastern Africa, 1961-1981; visited the Aksumite port of Adulis, on the Eritrean coast, 1960s; President (Section E), British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1961-1962; Governor, Imperial College of Science and Technology, 1962-1981; member of the Court of Arbitration, Argentine-Chile Frontier Case, 1965-1968 (Leader, Field Mission, 1966); member of the Secretary of State for Transport's Advisory Committee on Landscape Treatment of Trunk Roads (Deputy Chairman, 1970-1980), 1968-1981; member of the United Nations Register of fact-finding experts from 1968; member of Court, Exeter University, 1969-1980; KCMG, 1972; Founder's Medal, Royal Geographical Society, 1975; British Academy/Leverhulme Visiting Professor, Cairo, 1976; Mortimer Wheeler Lecturer, British Academy, 1977; Jubilee Medal, 1977; Honorary Vice-President, Royal Geographical Society, from 1981; Honorary Life President and Honorary Member, British Institute in Eastern Africa, 1981-1999; Honorary President, Sudan Archaeological Research Society, 1992; Fellow, University College London, and Imperial College of Science and Technology; Honorary Fellow, School of Oriental and African Studies, and American Geographical Society; Honorary Member, Geographical Societies of Paris, Vienna, and Washington, Royal Institute of Navigation, Institut d'Egypte, and International Society for Nubian Studies (Patron); Knight Cross of the Order of St Olav, Norway; MLitt, Oxon; died, 1999. Publications: Some Roman Mummy Tickets [1933?]; Christianity and the Kura'an [1934]; A Sudanese of the Saite Period (1934); Notes on the Topography of the Christian Nubian Kingdoms [1935]; The Oxford University Excavations in Nubia, 1934-1935 [1935]; with Walter B Emery, The Excavations and Survey between Wadies-Sebua and Adindan, 1929-1931 (1935); with Walter B Emery, The Royal Tombs of Ballana and Qustal (1938); The Oxford University Excavations at Firka (1939); contributed to The Temples of Kawa, i: The Inscriptions (1949), ii: History and Archaeology of the Site (1955); The White Road: a survey of polar exploration (1959); A History of Polar Exploration (1962); chapters in Miles Frederick Laming Macadam, Temples of Kawa (undated); papers on archaeology, historical and political geography, and exploration, in scientific and other publications.

In the late 19th century European powers including Italy sought to extend their influence in east Africa. Italy extended its influence sufficiently to proclaim the colony of Eritrea in the 1880s. Dispute over the meaning of a treaty signed by Menelik II (d 1913) of Ethiopia with Italy (1889), whereby Italy claimed it had been given a protectorate over Ethiopia, led to an Italian invasion in 1895 which resulted in Italy being defeated. Under the Treaty of Addis Ababa (1896) Italy recognized the independence of Ethiopia, but retained its Eritrean colonial base.

Nafka is a town in north-western Eritrea, a commercial centre of the Habab people and the site of an Italian Residenza.

Born, 1795; married Anna Wale (d 1859); appointed by the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society to St Vincent, West Indies, 1824; stationed in the West Indies, 1825-1838; minister at Retford, 1838-1840; minister at Belper, 1840-1842; returned to missionary work, serving in Demerara and the West Indies, 1842-1851; returned to England, serving as minister at Launceston, Kingsbridge, Ashburton and Bridgewater, 1851-1857; returned as missionary to Demerara, 1857-1861; missionary to Antigua, 1862-1866; returned to England and died at Weston-super-Mare, 1866.

Born in the China Seas, 1878; spent his early years in Aberdeen; moved to England as a young man; married Harriet Gordon Fraser, 1914; three children; worked as a banker in Liverpool; Presbyterian Church of England elder; interested in China, and his Chinese friends included those from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the Chinese Consulate, and business; involved in Christian universities in China; died, 1972.

A British expedition which embarked in 1787 to start a penal colony in Australia settled at Port Jackson (later Sydney). The indigenous people were the Eora. William Dawes (1762-1836) was Lieutenant (Royal Marines) on HMS Sirius, the flagship of the 'First Fleet'. He was a pioneering student of the language of New South Wales. His interests also included astronomy and in Australia he directed the building of an observatory under the instructions of the Board of Longitude. For further information see the entry by his friend, Zachary Macaulay, in the Australian Dictionary of National Biography, volume i: 1788-1850 (1983). See also A Currer Jones, William Dawes, RM, 1762 to 1836: a sketch of his life, work, and explorations (1787) in the first expedition to New South Wales (1930), and Arthur Phillip, The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay [with] ... plans and views ... by Lieut Dawes ... (1789).

John Comyn Higgins was born on 21 May 1882. He was educated at Bradfield, and Brasenose College, Oxford. He entered the Indian Civil Service in 1905. From 1907-1908 he was Assistant Magistrate and Collector, Bakarganj, Bengal. He became Sub-Divisional Officer, firstly in Jahat, Assam, 1908-1909 and then at Madaripur, Bengal, 1909-1910. From 1910-1917 Higgins was Vice-President and then President of the Manipur State Darbar. He became a Political Agent for the Manipur State (1917-1933) and worked as a political officer on the Kuki Punitive Operation, 1917-1919. From 1920-1923 he was Deputy Commissioner for Nowgong, Assam, and in 1934 became Commissioner for the Assam valley. In 1939 he was a Member of the Assam Revenue Tribunal. He retired in 1942 from the Civil Service and took a Commission with the Indian Engineers. He resigned from the Commission in September 1942. From 1942-1944 he was a Civil Liaison Officer with the Army and subsequently joined the Assam Public Service Commission, 1944-1945. He died on 8 December 1952.

Ernest A Findorff was Commissioner of Commerce in Belgium and UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) consultant in the Philippines in 1969-1970.

William Evans was born on 5 September 1860. He was attached to the Chinese Protectorate Service in 1882. He held numerous positions in Singapore and Penang before becoming Protector of Chinese, Straits Settlements in 1895. He held the position of Municipal Commissioner for Singapore for a number of stretches between 1895 and 1903. In 1911 he became Resident Councillor for Penang.

William Evans's son-in-law, Alan Custance Baker, was a member of the Malayan Civil Service from 1908-1940.

William Gawan Sewell was born on 6 July 1898, in Whitby, Yorkshire. He was born into an old Quaker family. He was educated at Ackworth School, Whitby County School and took his M.Sc. in chemistry at Leeds University. In 1921 he was appointed Demonstrator and Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Colour Chemistry at Leeds University. In 1922 he married Hilda Guy, a fellow student at Leeds (Botany and Education). They were to have three daughters and one son (the eldest daughter died in Chengdu at the age of seven).

In 1924 he resigned his University post to go, with his wife, to the West China Union University, Chengdu, Sichuan, as part of the Friends Foreign Mission Association (later the Friends Service Council). After a years language study he joined the Department of Chemistry, eventually becoming the Head and Associate Dean of the College of Science. In 1927 he was evacuated from Chengdu. After some time in Shanghai, he spent two terms teaching at Lingnan University, Canton, before returning to Sichuan.

From 1942 to 1945, he and his family were interned by the Japanese at Stanley, Hong Kong. After recuperation in England he returned to Chengdu in 1947. In 1949, after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, he was one of the few foreign teachers invited to stay. He continued his teaching at the West China Union University, returning to England in 1952.

After leaving China, he worked for eleven years (1952-1963) as Assistant Registrar (London Representative) of the University of Ghana (formerly the University College of the Gold Coast). He retired in 1964, and spent his time involved chiefly with China and Quaker committees. He was for several years a Vice-Chairman of the Friends Service Council, a Chairman for one year. He paid three visits to New Zealand, which gave him the opportunity of lecturing on China. In 1974 he visited eastern China. He died on 13 January 1984.

His publications (with the Edinburgh House Press) include Land and Life of China (1933); Turbid Waters (1934); China Through a College Window (1937); Strange Harmony (An Account of Internment) (1946); I Stayed in China (1966); The People of Wheelbarrow Lane (1970); China and the West: Mankind Evolving (1970).

Daniel George Edward Hall was born on 17 November 1891, the son of a Hertfordshire farmer, and received his early education at Hitchin Grammar School. He entered King's College, University of London, where he graduated with a first-class Honours degree in Modern History in 1916, winning the Gladstone Memorial Prize and an Inglis Studentship for postgraduate studies. After completing his Master's Degree he served with the Inns of Court Regiment during the First World War. In 1916 he found a post as Senior History Master at the Royal Grammar School, Worcester. In 1919 he moved to a similar position at Bedales School, Hampshire. In the same year, he married Helen Eugenie Banks. She had likewise been awarded the Gladstone Memorial Prize and as an undergraduate at King's had been two years junior to Hall.

In 1921, Hall was offered the Chair of History at the newly founded University of Rangoon. His energies were at first absorbed in coping with teaching courses in Western History. This involved not only teaching, but in some cases writing textbooks appropriate to the needs of his students. Within five years in Rangoon, Hall had produced three such works: Imperialism in Modern History (1923), A Brief Survey of English Constitutional History (1925), and (as co-author) The League of Nations: a Manual for University Students... in India, Burma and Ceylon (1926).

On his return to England in 1934 he became Headmaster of Caterham School. In 1949 the University of London appointed Dr. Hall to the newly established Chair in South East Asian History at the School of Oriental and African Studies. His work, the History of South East Asia, was completed and published in 1955. Following his retirement from the University of London in 1959, he became a visiting Professor at Cornell University in the United States where he spent much of his time during the next 14 years. He was also a visiting Professor at the University of British Columbia during 1964-1965; Monash University, 1965-1966 and the University of Michigan, 1966. He died on 12 October 1979.

John Mansfield Addis was born on 4 June 1914. He was the twelfth child and fifth son of Sir Charles and Lady Addis. He was educated at Rugby from 1928 to 1932 and then at Christchurch College, Oxford. He joined the Diplomatic Service in 1938 and served for a while as Assistant Private Secretary to the Permanent Under-Secretary, Sir Alexander Cadogan. Between 1942 and 1944 he worked as Civilian Liaison Officer at the Allied Force Headquarters in the Mediterranean, London, Algiers and Caserta, and in 1944 as Second Secretary, HM Embassy Paris. Between 1945 and 1947 he served as Assistant Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, Clement Attlee.

In 1947, he began his service in China, as First Secretary and Head of Chancery, HM Embassy Nanking and then in 1950, HM Embassy Peking. He remained in Peking for the next seven years and his postings included Assistant in the China and Korea Department, Foreign Office (1951-1954), Member of the UK Delegation to Geneva Conference on Korea (1954) and Counsellor and Consul General, HM Embassy Peking (1954-1957). He left China in 1957. Subsequent postings included Head of Southern Department, Foreign Office (1957-1959); HM Ambassador Vientiane, Laos (1960-1962); Fellow at the Harvard University Centre for International Affairs (1962-1963); HM Ambassador, Manila (1963-1969); and HM Ambassador, China (1970-1974). He retired in 1974.

In 1975 he was elected as Senior Research Fellow in Contemporary Chinese Studies at Wolfson College, Oxford, and held this position throughout his retirement. He was also a member of the Advisory Council of the V&A Museum, a Trustee of the British Museum, Board Member of the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank, Adviser to the Barclays International Bank and Great Britain China Centre. He died on 31 July 1983. He never married.