Draft:Harold Gilbee Anderson

Harold Gilbee Anderson was a medical missionary that originally worked in London, who then went to western China for research fellowship. He held multiple degrees and positions, where he earned a bachelor in medicine and was appointed to an administrative role in the Church Missionary Society (CMS). Dr. Anderson based his missionary trips around religion, specifically Evangelism, claiming that the goal of medical missions is to help men to find their "wholeness" in life. Evangelism isn't merely about addressing large crowds or groups with words, but it involves the personal introduction of individuals to God. Dr. Anderson believed that medical science can only be taken so far, what mattered was that the mighty works of God should be performed so that, even in dying, men are made whole, and in incurable invalidism yet find their full stature as sons of God.

Early life and education

Harold Gilbee Anderson was born on May 26, 1896 at Safed, Palestine. Dr. Anderson's father was a medical missionary in Palestine, under the Church Missions to Jews, while his mother was a secretary for Young Women's Christian Association (Y.W.C.A.). Between 1907 and 1915, he attended a public school called Monkton Combe School, where it was there that he first heard the call to missionary service, as did many of his generation.

Dr. Anderson then went into war service with both the British and American Expeditionary Forces in France which widened his horizons, where he was captain of the Royal West Kent Regiment (1915-1919). Afterwards, he was a superintendent at a hospital slum mission from 1920-1923. He pursued higher education where he earned his master degrees in which he received Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (MRCS) and Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians (LRCP) certifications.

In 1925, after his war service in France, he entered St. Bartholomew's Hospital where he received his Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians (MRCP), M.B, B.S. from London and held the post of Senior house physician. He would soon be accepted by the CMS and sailed to China for his missionary trip, where he would later then obtain his medical degree in 1934. Dr. Anderson had two wives, where he married his first wife, Eleanor Waverly Mcneil, on April 29, 1927 but she died in London on February 15th, 1950. He later remarried a year later to Elizabeth France who was formerly of CMS H.Q. staff.

Career and journey

In October 15, 1924, he was accepted to be a missionary by the Church Missionary Society where on March 5th, 1926 he was sent on to his mission in Western China, Meinchu. He began his association with the West China Union University, Chengdu in 1926 but was interrupted for a year by the 1926 Chinese Revolution, also known as the Northern Expedition.

Severe fighting in Chengdu with modern artillery was used for the first time, leaving terrible effects on the wood and plaster houses of which the city is covered in. The hospital that Dr. Anderson was working in, was supposed to accommodate one hundred and ten patients; on one day they had seven hundred wounded people in. During this time of upheaval, there was terrible crowding in the hospital that involve many wounded soldiers. This took its toll as diseases spread to the hospital's staff, where Dr. Anderson came down with influenza that later turned into typhus fever leaving him practically unconscious for about two weeks, but was able to recover.  

Both Mr. and Mrs. Anderson sought refuge in Australia, Adelaide, during the 1926 Chinese revolution. This provided an opportunity in 1927 to develop missionary interest by founding the CMS. Youth Fellowship in South Australia—an organization that has produced many CMS. missionaries in the last twenty years. Dr. Anderson would return back to Chengdu and continue to carry out his missionary, helping people who were coming into the hospital.

During Dr. Anderson's time serving as a missionary at the hospital, two teachers from Hong Kong University became his patients after a bad motor-bus accident outside of Chengdu, eventually leading to the possibility of a real measure of future cooperation between the two universities. In 1932, he was approved by the executive missionary and both university authorities, Hong Kong University and West China Union University, to conduct a 6 month research fellowship at Henry Lester Institute of Medical Research in Shanghai. The facilities that Dr. Anderson has access to, enabled him to finish off a short monograph on tuberculosis in West China.     

By 1933, he left China and went back to England through Australia. From 1934-1935, he served as an acting physician and secretary, acting as a locum for Dr. Cook, succeeding Dr. J. H. Cook as CMS Medical Secretary at Salisbury Square, London. Dr. Anderson took office at a formative stage in the growth of the Society's medical work. In 1935, Dr. Anderson went back to Chengdu where the executive committee approved of him joining Mr. Barely in a far east tour of CMS. and reported back on his journey. Dr. Anderson would then later be asked by CMS. to relinquish his valuable work in Chengdu to take up a role as Physician to the Society on the Home staff, and as the secretary in charge of the CMS Medical Missions.

Dr. Anderson then traveled back to England in 1938 where he was appointed as a physician society, an administration of the Church Missionary Society, and as secretary to the medical community where his responsibility was to keep records and do correspondence for the committee. The Medical Commission's report of 1939 is a landmark in the history of CMS medical missions, and Dr. Anderson's dominant passion was translating its recommendations from paper to practice.

The General Committee of the CMS. asked the country to give in a much larger proportion to the organizations general fund, where Dr. Anderson agreed that surplus money must no longer be tied up in any particular hospital but shall be free to help meet the needs of other CMS. medical centers in the same area, meaning "better-off" hospitals will come to the rescue of the more needy ones in their own area.

He held this position for a few years during this time, where his wife, Eleanor Waverly Mcneil, died on February 11th in 1950. He would then later remarried a year later to Elizabeth France, former staff of at the HeadQuarters of CMS. He would resign as a medical superintendent on January 21st in 1959, but the resignation wasn't effective until September of that year.

Recognitions

• For more than ten years, Dr. Anderson served as one of the CMS. representatives on the staff of the West China Union University, recognized as one of the leading doctors in China.
• Dr. Anderson was a key figure whose passion was translating the recommendations of the report into practical action. He addressed various concerns, such as the health of missionaries, integrating medical missions into the mainstream of CMS life and work, adapting to challenging conditions abroad, as well as establishing a system of "regional medical advisers" to unify medical work in different areas. He worked actively to implement changes in response to the challenges outlined in the 1939 report, where his efforts are driven by his commitment to the Christian Gospel of "wholeness".
• Dr. Anderson has seen the rise and fall of many local warlords over the years of service in Chengdu, Sichuan. His daily journey from home to mission hospital often has been made at the risk of his life. His time during Chengdu left a influential impact on the people he helped but also his colleagues.
• One of the biggest and most impactful things that Dr. Anderson had done was that he trained and inspired his Chinese colleagues at the University, enabling them to be able to carry on the work which he inaugurated in Chengdu. Dr. Anderson's belief in Evangelism, felt that God had been training us and leading us on as a Christian community of the most diverse background and theological bias into a quite marvelous unity in himself.