1900 - Edith Coombs & Two Christian Schoolgirls

June 27, 1900

Shouyang, Shanxi

Edith Coombs & Two Christian Schoolgirls

Edith Anna Coombs was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1862. She was an outstanding student, entering Somerville Hall in Oxford at the age of 19, graduating with a degree in literature four years later. She took up a teaching post at the Edgbaston High School for Girls, where one of her co-workers said, “She knows more about the girls than all the rest of the staff put together, for they tell her everything, sure of ready sympathy. I worked with her nearly six years, and never saw her otherwise that sweet, bright, and helpful.”[1] It was during her time as a teacher that Edith’s personal faith in Christ deepened. She developed a motto: ‘Spend and be spent for Jesus Christ.’

The claims of the mission field impressed upon Coombs, and in 1898 at the age of 36 she joined the Shouyang Mission, located near Taiyuan in China’s Shanxi Province. Before leaving home, she spoke to the girls at her school, telling them, “You have many to love you, but the poor little girls in China hardly know what love means.”[2]

Edith Coomb’s first two years in China were filled with happiness and challenges. She found the monotony of studying Chinese difficult. Inwardly she struggled with loneliness, yet retained her bright and cheerful exterior. In the winter of 1898-99 she took full charge of the Girls’ School at Shouyang. One of the schoolgirls under her care was Wen Cui (Wen Ts’ui). Wen accepted the gospel almost as soon as she heard it and was soon winning others to Christ, including her own sister. Coombs wrote,

“Her influence almost shames me as I think of former days, and her life causes me constant admiration. She is only 21, and is betrothed to a Hebei student. Without her, my work here would be practically impossible. Ignorance of custom and language are a constant bar between me and the children, and women too. But Wen Cui and I understand each other wonderfully. She is indeed my right hand.”[3]

When the Boxers attacked the mission premises on the night of June 27, 1900, Coombs’ first concern was for the welfare of her beloved students. As each building was set on fire, the missionaries finally attempted to escape. On reaching the street, Coombs

“found that two of her little scholars had been left behind, and in the dark and excitement…she went back alone to try to save the little girls. One was found and put in a place of safety. She went back for the other, found and brought her out on to the street, when a false step, causing her to stumble, was the signal for the angry crowd to begin to pelt her with stones. Vainly she attempted to protect her little charge with her own body; then they were rudely separated, and Miss Coombs was thrust once, twice, thrice into the flames as she endeavoured to escape.”[4]

The Girls’ School at Shouyang in 1899. Edith Coombs is at the back. Many of these young girls were raped or sold into slavery during the Boxer Rebellion.

A different account, that of her friend Wen Cui, says that Coombs was

“struck on the head with a brick, and both she and the lame girl fell. She said to the girl, ‘Don’t be afraid; we shall soon see Jesus.’ She then rose and begged them to spare the girl’s life, and someone led the girl away. They then threw Miss Coombs on the fire in the gateway, and when twice she rose out of the flames, they heaped a door and tables and boards on top of her…. [The next day] they found only a few charred bones which they buried amid the ruins of the mission compound.”[5]

Two Christians watched the martyrdom of Edith Coombs from the rooftop of a neighbouring house. They later testified that they saw “the heavens opened just above the fire, and a beautiful face looked down.”[6]

Edith Coombs was the first Protestant missionary killed by the Boxers in Shanxi Province. Two of the Chinese schoolgirls were also trampled to death. When the shocking news of Coombs’ death reached Britain, a stream of letters came flooding in from those who had been touched by the purity of her life. Coombs’ pastor, Rev. J. H. Jowett, gave the following tribute:

“Miss Coombs was beloved by everybody who knew her; her culture was only exceeded by her piety, and she spent herself abundantly and lavishly in the welfare of her fellow-men…. She was a heroine here, and…if she could have been told before she went out to China that she would become a martyr, she would have gloried in her call.”[7]

1. Edwards, Fire and Sword in Shansi, 214.
2. Edwards, Fire and Sword in Shansi, 218.
3. Miner, China’s Book of Martyrs, 423.
4. Edwards, Fire and Sword in Shansi, 216.
5. Miner, China’s Book of Martyrs, 425-426.
6. Miner, China’s Book of Martyrs, 426.
7. Birmingham Daily Post (September 7, 1900).