Cecil H. Polhill-Turner

Cecil Polhill-Turner came from an aristocratic family (thus his double surname Polhill-Turner, which he later shortened to Polhill). He was the third son of Captain F.C. Polhill, formerly of the Dragoon Guards, Member of Parliament, and Justice of the Peace. His wife was also a Barron. Together they had six children.

After attending Eton and then Jesus College Cambridge, Cecil joined the Royal Dragoons, the “the resplendent heavy cavalry seen in royal processions and ‘the changing of the Guard’” (Broomhall 7.328, quoting Pollock, 10, 24).

The family were nominal Christians until their oldest daughter was converted and became a zealous follower of Jesus. Cecil’s older brother Arthur was similarly transformed by Christ, giving up his former life of hunting, dancing, theater, and card playing. Arthur then talked to Cecil about going to China as a missionary. Cecil went with him to two of D.L. Moody’s meetings in 1883. Although attracted to this new and authentic Christianity, he did not want to lose the favor of his fellow officers and the life as a cavalryman that he loved.

He overcame his hesitations, however, and made a firm commitment to follow Christ. The two brothers applied to the China Inland Mission in January 1885 in time to stand on the platform with others of the “Cambridge Seven” two weeks later. That all of these men had renounced position and a promising career stunned both active and casual Christians, making a huge impact on the church and on British society. Interest in the CIM surged, especially among university students, and more applications came from those wanting to go to China as missionaries. He resigned his commission in the Army that same month, as did his brother Arthur.

The packed meetings at which these men spoke before they departed for China made a dramatic and lasting impression upon the nation, marking “a highpoint not only of the CIM but all missions. No send-off had ever been so stirring, and no heart-searching so deep or widespread among Christians” (Broomhall 7.376).

After Cecil reached China in 1885, he, Arthur, and C.T. Studd were sent up the Han River to Anqing to begin the formal study of Chinese. During their journey, they decided to adopt the “biblical” way of learning a language: to wait upon God for the baptism of the Holy Spirit that would enable them to speak in tongues. Within a few months, however, they saw their mistake and settled down to serious study of Chinese and all eventually became fluent. Hudson Taylor believed that for new workers, “Months of submission to a Chinese scholar while watching and listening to evangelists and experienced missionaries taught wisdom as well as language” (Broomhall 7.376).

The Polhill brothers benefitted from, and contributed to, the deep spirituality of the CIM. After one conference with them and others in Hanzhong, the new Deputy Director, John Stevenson, wrote to Hudson Taylor, “We had the full tide last night, and found it hard to break up such a glory-time … I think you would not have slept much for delight” (Broomhall 7.385).

By June they were making a pioneer journey into Sichuan, where they rented premises in Langzhong (Paoning). They set up an inn there and worked in the city for a month before returning to Hanzhong. After returning, in their youthful confidence they declared, “We had in God’s name claimed Sichuan, and thrown down the gauntlet to Satan” (Broomhall 7.415). Independently wealthy, Cecil donated the rent for one premise at Langzhong, planning to return there. He saw the station in Hanzhong as a way to opening up northern and eastern Sichuan to evangelism.

In June 1886, he set out from Hanzhong for Langzhong with another missionary and two Chinese helpers. When they arrived, they found that the CIM house had been demolished by a mob. Other foreign missionaries, including Roman Catholics, had also been assaulted and were now under the protection of the magistrate. After two weeks in hiding, they were sent back to Hanzhong by an official. Cecil and Montagu Beauchamp were off again for Chengdu in September.

These early journeys “shaped [the] lives” of the early missionaries. They had “proved their mettle” and gained the confidence of Hudson Taylor and other CIM leaders. Soon, “Cecil found his niche in the Tibetan marshes [borderland between Tibet and China proper] and embarked on romantic, dangerous adventures” (Broomhall 7.423-424). Rather than heading straight for Tibet, however, Cecil, like fellow CIM worker Annie Taylor, decided to take the gospel first to Tibetans living in China and then only to Lhasa if the way opened to them. Cecil’s strategy was to win Tibetans for Christ and the equip them to return to Tibet and share the gospel there.

In 1887, he moved to Xining in Qinghai Province, began to learn Tibetan, and focused on the needs of the Amdo Tibetans. He married Eleanor Marsden in 1888. They studied Tibetan with an old man who had met missionaries years before.

For a time they lived at ‘Tankar,’ the last Chinese town before Lake Kokonor, and found the monks of the great Kumbum monastery friendly. Better still, the abbot Pancheda of Maying monastery, four days’ travel from Xining, listened earnestly to the gospel, showed that he understood its implications and was “convinced but not converted.” He also taught Cecil Polhill more Tibetan. They took a house at “Wachia” right among Tibetans sixty miles south of Xining, and succeeded in planting a church at Guide, fifteen miles nearer to Xining. But they had no thought of settling down… .

In 1891 the Polhills handed over the Xining work to H. French Ridley of the CIM … and joining a caravan of seventy Muslim merchants travelled to the important Labran monastery (at present-day Xiahe) … From there they travelled to Gansu … In the Taozhou-Choni region the Polhills worked for a month, everywhere well received, before returning to Lanzhou and beginning another chapter in their lives… .

In November 1891 Cecil took a long journey to explore possible places to live closer to Tibet. “At a monastery on his route the abbot assembled all his monks to hear the gospel and exhorted them to ponder what they heard and to do what their consciences might dictate.”

In March 1892 the Polhills traveled for twenty-two days before arriving in Songpan, where they settled into “a room with two Chinese beds, two chairs and a small table, beside a yard filled with yak. The Tibetans treated Cecil as one of their own monks, and for two and a half months all went well. Then drought drove the Chinese to pin the blame on someone” (Broomhall 7:162-165).

The Polhills’ progress suddenly stalled in July 1892, however, when the people of Songpan rioted and nearly killed the couple. A severe drought had afflicted the region, and the spirit-priests blamed the change of weather on the presence of the missionaries. As each day passed without rain, the rancor grew stronger. Then unexpectedly on July 19:

A mob seized and beat Cecil with boards taken from a paling. They bound him hand and foot and threw him down in the blazing sun while they stood round and cursed. Eleanor suffered almost like treatment, but the children were rescued by friendly neighbors. Their two Chinese servants were also bound and beaten, and then all were led through the streets and out of the city gate to be tied up till the rain came.

They were finally rescued by the magistrate, but the crowd would not be satisfied till the two Chinese servants offered themselves to be beaten till their flesh was raw, after which large wooden collars were put on them. The crowd then dispersed, and two days afterward the little party left the city under an escort.[1]

Their servant Zhang considered the persecution a great blessing from God, and later remarked, “I couldn’t help smiling … When we were being marched through the town with wrists tied, we were in a very small way like our Master, Jesus Christ” (Broomhall 7.165).

Years later, an elderly Christian man told a missionary that he had witnessed the persecution at Songpan and was so impressed by the Christians’ attitude that he decided he must look into the faith, and he, too, became a believer.

Although the Polhills were forced to leave Songpan, the town was such an ideal location for outreach to Tibetans that it was not long before new missionaries arrived to take their place. The Polhills had a total of six children (three sons and three daughters) and continued to serve on the northern edge of the Tibetan world at Xining until the outbreak of the 1900 Boxer Rebellion, when the British Consulate ordered them to leave.

Eleanor died in 1904 after an illness. In the last few weeks of her life, when it became apparent the end was near, her devoted husband asked if she regretted marrying him because of all the troubles, hardships, and deprivations they had experienced together. Elenor immediately replied: “No, we have had a lovely time together!” (China’s Millions, February 1905, 21).

Cecil was a highly regarded Anglican missionary, but after returning to England he received a large inheritance and embraced Pentecostal theology. In 1908, he traveled to America and participated in the Azuza Street revival, and he wrote a large check which paid off the mortgage on the Azuza Street building. Pentecostalism was considered a heresy by many Conservative Christians at the time, and Polhill was forced to resign from the Anglican Church. He subsequently became the first president of the Pentecostal Missionary Union (Hattaway 63-64).

Evaluation

Cecil Polhill possessed the spirit of an adventurer, a pioneer, almost a rebel if he could not be given full scope to carry out his ambitious plans for ministry. Wisely, the leadership of the CIM allowed him to follow his sense of God’s leading and to build a ministry to Tibetans in several places. No one questioned his dedication, courage, or skill in communicating the gospel to these hard-to-reach people. His wife demonstrated similar qualities as she accompanied him on long, arduous journeys and lived in far-away places. This intrepid couple represented the best of Hudson Taylor’s bold mission to take the gospel to all the inland provinces of China, far from the settled missions on the coast.

Likewise, Cecil Polhill’s renunciation of wealth, privilege, and social status, and the surrendering of himself and all he possessed to advance the kingdom of God, honored the examples of Hudson Taylor and his wives, who repeatedly denied themselves for the sake of the millions of Chinese people who had never heard the message of salvation from sin through faith in Christ.

G. Wright Doyle

[1] Ebe Murrayaa, “Missionary Effort for Tibet,” China’s Millions (August 1897), P. 103.