1900 - Arnold & Mrs. Lovitt

July 9, 1900

Taiyuan, Shanxi

Arnold and Mrs. Lovitt.

Arnold E. Lovitt was born in London on February 4, 1869. The son of a prominent lawyer, Lovitt received his medical degree from the London Hospital. For a year he served as the resident physician at Mildmay Hospital. During that time he met missionary Thomas Pigott, who was on furlough from China. Pigott shared that he was praying for a young doctor to work at the Schofield Memorial Hospital in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. Despite the promises of an attractive income and comfortable lifestyle, Lovitt was willing to serve Christ in China for little more than his board and daily necessities. He arrived in Taiyuan in the autumn of 1897. His wife was the daughter of Alexander Grant, one of the first Protestant missionaries in Singapore.

The Lovitts applied themselves to language study for the first year. Arnold gradually became more involved in the medical work, performing operations on the most difficult cases. He never lost sight that his primary role was to share the gospel of Christ was as many patients as possible. In the spring of 1899 Lovitt took charge of the entire hospital, even though he had only been in China 18 months. Mrs. Lovitt, a trained nurse, took charge of routine medical work among the female patients. They “at once threw themselves heartily into the work and were alive to the responsibility resting upon them. It was a great joy to know that everything was carried on so efficiently.”[1]

The Lovitts were not expecting the Boxer storm that so suddenly broke upon them and the other missionaries in Taiyuan. After hearing of Christians being massacred throughout the countryside, Lovitt wrote a letter that said,

“We would like our dear home ones to know we are being marvellously sustained by the Lord. He is precious to each of us. The children seem to have no fear. We cannot but hope for deliverance…. Our trust is in Him entirely and alone…. There is not much time. We are ready.”[2]

The hospital was burned to the ground and the 31-year-old doctor and his wife perished on July 9, 1900. One account states,

“Mrs. Lovitt was permitted to hold the hand of her little boy. ‘We all came to China to bring you the good news of salvation by Jesus Christ,’ she said in a firm voice. ‘We have done you no harm, only good. Why do you treat us so?’ In a strange act of gentleness, a soldier stepped up and removed her spectacles before she and her son were beheaded.”[3]

The Lovitt’s little son, Jackie, was spared from death by the courageous actions of Mrs. James Simpson, who carried the boy from the burning hospital and “defended him from the blows of brickbats and cudgels with her own body.”[4] The Simpsons were themselves killed for the cause of Christ, but had succeeded in saving the life of Jackie Lovitt.

1. Edwards, Fire and Sword in Shansi, 227.
2. Marshall Broomhall (ed.), Last Letters and Further Records of Martyred Missionaries of the China Inland Mission (London: China Inland Mission, 1901), 48.
3. Hefley, By Their Blood, 16.
4. Edwards, Fire and Sword in Shansi, 247.