1902 - James Bruce & Henry Lowis

August 15, 1902

Chenzhou, Hunan

James Bruce.

James R. Bruce left Australia to serve as a missionary with the China Inland Mission in 1896. His fellow martyr Henry Lowis departed England in 1899 and the duo served Christ in the southern province of Hunan until they were cruelly beaten to death at Chenzhou on August 15, 1902.

James Bruce had grown up in a God-fearing home in the Australian state of Victoria. He received missionary training at Belair before sailing for China. To begin with Bruce made his home at Yichang in Hubei Province before later transferring to Hunan. Fellow missionary A. E. Glover wrote the following about Bruce:

“With nothing to mark him out as a man of great natural gifts, he had a rich spiritual endowment. He was, in my mind, the exemplification of the words, ‘least of all and servant of all.’ To watch the humility with which he was always content to take the lowest room, in a real self-effacement, was a wholesome interest to me, and one that led me to my knees in deep searchings of heart…. Quiet and undemonstrative, Mr. Bruce was a man of purpose. He lived manifestly near to God, and his heart was set upon the work God had given him to do. He was not one to be turned aside easily, by fear or by any other consideration, from fulfilling his ministry which he had received in the Lord.”[1]

Henry Lowis.

Henry Lowis hailed from Skirworth in Cumberland, England. As a young man he travelled to Scotland, where he attended the Glasgow Bible Training Institute. John Anderson, the Principal of the Institute, said of Lowis:

“Beneath a quiet, gentle and unassuming manner that won him the affection of his friends there was a depth and strength of character that demanded the respect of all who had occasion to test its mettle. He was beloved by his fellow-students and gained the esteem and approbation of his teachers. He was a careful and diligent student and took a good place in the classes.”[2]

Lowis’ first year in China was spent at Anking in Anhui Province, where he studied Chinese. Early in 1901 he relocated to Chenzhou in Hunan Province, which proved to be his final earthly home. In 1902 Chenzhou was swept by a cholera epidemic and many people died. The local rumour-mill said the epidemic was caused by poison the two missionaries had willingly given to people as medicine. Another rumour stated that Bruce and Lowis had been seen poisoning the freshwater spring that served as the town’s water supply. The hostility reached its climax on August 15th, when

“A crowd of some hundreds gathered in the street and stormed the house where they lived. Bruce was caught and beaten to death. Lowis at first escaped; then he too was caught, stabbed, and beaten to death. Bruce thus laid down his life at the age of thirty-one after only six years of work on the field in China; but its value must be measured, not on the scales of time, but on the great scales of eternity.”[3]

The day of the funeral was set for August 31, 1902. Officials from Chenzhou attended, offering their deep condolences. The local government produced two documents embroidered on silk (one for each grieving family), “expressing the sorrow of the officials for what had occurred, and their admiration for the high qualities of the deceased.”[4] In part, the elegy eloquently said,

“O Heaven! Why did such a good man meet with such a dire end? We, the officials, in the stillness of the night, think on this fate, and are so filled with grief that we become ill. Never shall we forget it. For a brief space only we were permitted to join heart (with our friend), but now he has bid us a long farewell. May his spirit which has ascended to heaven descend again and listen to our elegy.”[5]

As the funeral procession wound its way through Chenzhou on the way to the graveyard, the missionaries’ coffins were draped in white cloth, and surrounded by many of the schoolchildren whom Bruce and Lowis had loved. The British government demanded payment from the Chinese for the deaths of these two missionaries. A sum of £10,000 was paid, but the China Inland Mission refused to accept it because they did not want to appear to have demanded compensation. The mission went out of their way to explain the two had come to China willingly, and had laid down their lives willingly. This testimony was a great witness to many Chinese.

The memorial stone commemorating the martyrdoms of Bruce and Lowis.

The following year a memorial stone was erected by the Chinese government to commemorate the deaths of James Bruce and Henry Lowis. The stone recounted the details of the men’s lives and documented their grisly deaths.

A short time later, new missionaries arrived to continue the work in Chenzhou. They were warmly welcomed by the local people, and several years after the martyrdoms it was said that, “almost as soon as the deed was perpetrated, the people were smitten with remorse at their terrible crime, and as the aims of the missionaries have been better understood, a kindlier feeling has come over them.”[6]

1. “In Memoriam—Messrs. J. R. Bruce and R. H. Lowis,” China’s Millions (October 1902), 141.
2. “In Memoriam—Messrs. J. R. Bruce,” 142.
3. Marcus L. Loane, The Story of the China Inland Mission in Australia and New Zealand, 1890-1964 (Sydney: Overseas Missionary Fellowship, 1965), 31.
4. China’s Millions (December 1902), 166.
5. China’s Millions (December 1902), 166.
6. T. A. P. Clinton, “The Province of Hu-nan—A Contrast,” China’s Millions (April 1906), 58.