1900 - Annie Eldred

August 15, 1900

Kaizha, Shanxi

Annie Eldred.

Born in England in 1871, Annie Eldred came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ when she was 19. After leaving high school Annie was working in a shop at Brighton when God laid hold of her life. Over the next years she spent many hours at the Connaught Institute, sharing the gospel with many and comforting the downcast. Many sinners found Christ due to her bold and loving witness. Eldred possessed an infectious joy. People loved to be around her, and she never seemed down or discouraged. A colleague later wrote,

“Quiet and quite gentle in manner, it was not till she felt at home that the brightness and earnestness of dear Annie Eldred’s nature became apparent. Her unselfishness was very marked, and made her a great favourite in every place—whether at home or at school, as an apprentice in a house of business or as a Christian worker.”[1]

In 1897 Annie offered herself for missionary service in China, was accepted by the China Inland Mission, and sailed for China in September of the following year. Her first year was full of trials, as she struggled with learning the language and adjusting to the conditions. Her language studies were so laborious that many times she felt like giving up, while the CIM was so concerned they started to question their decision to send her to China in the first place. Every time she went to open her study books she was struck with intense migraine headaches. Consequently, for two months she was not able to study at all. In a letter home, Eldred expressed her frustrations, “I wonder what the end of it will be; it would break my heart to have to leave China, but I will leave it all to Him, and learn to be content, and gladly say, ‘Thy will be done.’ I do love the people so, and want to stay with them.”[2]

Slowly but surely her vocabulary grew. The excitement of knowing some sentences motivated her to learn more, and soon Eldred was making steady progress. In May 1899 she relocated to Pingyang (now Linfen) in southern Shanxi Province. That summer she went to a hill station and helped another missionary reach out to the surrounding villages with the message of eternal life.

In June 1900 Annie accepted an invitation to come to Fenyang as a guest of the Price family. The Boxer troubles broke out and the missionaries were compelled to remain inside their compound. The stress of facing death every day weighed heavily on Annie. She “was having trouble sleeping and suffered from painful headaches.”[3] She often dreamed of being killed by the Boxers, and said, “I feel half dead already.”[4]

Annie Eldred was among seven missionaries and three children ambushed and massacred by the Boxers on August 15, 1900. She was 29-years-old.

1. Broomhall, Martyred Missionaries of the China Inland Mission, 138.
2. Broomhall, Martyred Missionaries of the China Inland Mission, 139.
3. Brandt, Massacre in Shansi, 195.
4. Brandt, Massacre in Shansi, 262.