Mary and Annie Bell: Unsung Pioneers of the China Inland Mission

Mary and Annie Bell were twin sisters born in the Essex village of Great Waltham in 1844. They were the eldest daughters of William and Sophia Bell, the local shoemaker and his wife. The family were active members of the Independent Congregational Church and, while they lived a simple rural life, they grew up with aspirations beyond the expectations of most women in 1860's England. After a period working as a nurse to the children of the Rector of Fyfield, Mary became nurse to the children of J. Hudson and Maria Taylor and joined them as part of the famous 'Lammermuir Party' of missionaries who pioneered the China Inland Mission (CIM). Eighteen months later Annie followed her sister to China. The CIM were the first missionaries to go into the interior of China and 'go native'; wearing local clothes, living among the locals, eating the same food and adopting their language. Both Mary and Annie married missionaries and became partners in their evangelical work; producing religious tracts and books; setting up and running mission stations and schools and running bible classes, in what was to them a 'heathen land' in desperate need of saving. As well as undertaking such a challenging vocation, they also raised their families and ran their homes in the most challenging of times and circumstances. They faced almost insurmountable difficulties and experienced losses that would make the strongest of us falter. That they were pioneers there can be no doubt. That their story has been untold is a tragedy that has rightly been rectified through the publication of this book.