The National Library of Wales :: Dictionary of Welsh Biography

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

RICHARD , TIMOTHY ( 1845 - 1919 ), ‘one of the greatest missionaries whom any branch of the Church has ever sent to China .’ Born at Ffaldybrenin, Carms. , 10 Oct. 1845 , the son of Timothy and Eleanor Richard , he was baptized in 1859 and became a member of Caeo Baptist church . After a period of school teaching , he entered the Haverfordwest Baptist College ( 1865 ), and in 1869 the Baptist Missionary Society sent him to China . There he laboured, with infrequent furloughs, from 1870 to 1915 , first in Chafoo , then in Shantung and Shansi , and finally in Shanghai , when, in 1891 , he was appointed secretary of the Christian Literature Society of China . He resigned in 1915 , and d. in London , 17 April 1919 .

His manifold activities and vast influence defy summary. Pioneer missionary , philanthropist , missionary statesman , scholar , educationist , author , and publicist , friend and adviser of princes and peasants, the name of ‘ Li T'i-motai ’ was a household word throughout China . His Chinese honours were singularly distinguished, e.g. a mandarin of the highest grade and a member of the Order of the Double Dragon . The University of Wales gave him its LL.D. ( 1916 ); he was also D.D. and D.Litt .

Dr. Richard m. (1) 1878 , Mary Martin , who d. in 1903 , and by whom he had four daughters; (2) 1914 , Dr. Ethel Tribe , who survived him. His uncle, Jedediah Richards , is separately noticed.

Bibliography:

Timothy Richard , Forty-five Years in China reminiscences , London, 1916 ;
W. E. Soothill , Timothy Richard of China, seer, statesman, missionary & the most disinterested adviser the Chinese ever had , London, 1924 ;
E. W. Price Evans , Timothy Richard a narrative of Christian enterprise and statesmanship in China , London, 1945? .

Author:

Rev. Edward William Price Evans, M.A., (1887-1972), Pontypool