Hugh Eyton-Jones

Chaplain to the Forces 1st Class, The Reverend Hugh Mortimer Eyton-Jones, MA (Cantab) (1863 – 25 March 1943) was a clergyman, missionary and member of the Church Missionary Society, preaching the Gospel in Fuh Ning, China from 1889 – 1900, serving as Vicar of St. Paul's, Hounslow later in life.

Hugh Mortimer Eyton-Jones
Born(1863-09-17)17 September 1863[1]
Wrexham, Denbighshire Wales
Died25 March 1943(1943-03-25) (aged 79)
Hounslow, Middlesex, England[2]
Military career
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army
Royal Air Force
Years of service1914-1939
RankChaplain to the Forces 1st Class
UnitRoyal Army Chaplains' Department
Royal Air Force Chaplains Branch
Battles/warsWorld War I
World War II
RelationsThomas Eyton-Jones (father)
John Eyton-Jones (brother)
David Eyton-Jones (grandson)
William Eyton-Jones (nephew)

Early life

The son of the Dr. Thomas Eyton-Jones of Wrexham, a nephew of Sir Edward Samuelson[3] who was Lord Mayor of Liverpool 1872 - 1873[4] and a great nephew of Sir Rowland Hill, the inventor of the Penny Post. Eyton-Jones was brought up as a devoutly conservative Christian and was encouraged to develop an interest in theological, political and social matters.[5]

Career

Eyton-Jones took his theological education at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he obtained a B.A. degree in 1885 and an M.A. in 1894, before going to study at Ridley Hall, Cambridge. He was ordained deacon in 1886 and on 18 December 1887 he was ordained a priest at Worcester Cathedral.[6] From 1886 to 1889 he was curate of St. Clement's, Birmingham, which is where he met Jane Elizabeth Savage, who would later become his wife, both of whom had a shared interest in volunteering and overseas missionary work.[7]

Having been influenced by the Cambridge Seven, who had formed to preach in China through the China Inland Mission in 1885, Eyton-Jones was initiated into the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in March 1889.[8] In October 1889, at a valedictory meeting held in the Henry Martyn Memorial Hall, a centre of Christian and missionary influence, Eyton-Jones was one of eight men who had named themselves The Cambridge Eight to discuss their departure under the Church Missionary Society.[9] Eyton-Jones volunteered for the mission field in China, then under the Qing dynasty.

Eyton-Jones and his wife sailed in 1889 and stayed in the area around Fuzhou on the south east coast for eight years. This one hundred mile expanse became his parish including two large harbours and their surrounding villages as well as several islands located twenty miles from the mainland. The couple's first three children were born in China, where they spent eight years with the CMS.[5] For transport he sailed up the rivers in a yacht presented to him by his uncle Sir Edward Samuelson.[10]

Within a year his language became fluent and his background in boxing gave him a good foundation in Jujutsu.[11] In March 1895 at the Consular District of Fuzhou where Eyton-Jones had opened a book shop having been provided a passport by the Prefect of Fujian, an attempt was made on his life by a follower of the zhaijiao "fasting school" who had been protesting against the Christian missionaries for some time,[12] the culprit drew a knife and ran at him before being rendered defenceless by eyewitnesses and was identified as a servant of the local magistrate and so received no punishment.[13]

On 2 August 1895 Eyton-Jones conducted the funeral service for the Rev. Robert Stewart, who was murdered along with ten other people including his family members in 1895. Known as The Kucheng Massacre, this traumatic incident would have had a lasting psychological effect on Eyton-Jones. Ill health made him return to the United Kingdom in 1900, spending one year living with the family of his older brother John Eyton-Jones at Abbotsfield, Wrexham, before moving to London.[14]

From 1900 to 1911 Eyton-Jones was curate of St. Stephen's, Ealing, then became vicar of St. Paul's Hounslow Heath in 1911. Over 31 years in this role, Hounslow developed from a semi-rural district to a significant London suburb. He was appointed surrogate in 1918.

During World War I he was appointed as clergyman assisting the Chaplain to the Forces in presiding over servicemen. He was later chosen by the Chaplain-in-Chief of the Royal Air Force to be minister to squadrons in training on Hounslow Heath, also serving as Chaplain to the Officer Training Corps of the Inns of Court Regiment until the outbreak of World War II. Eyton-Jones was employed by the Royal Army Chaplains' Department to work as chaplain at Hounslow Barracks for four months. Throughout the war he worked closely with the YMCA, allowing the church hall to be used as a rest and social centre for military people stationed locally. During The Blitz he visited bomb shelters to preach and counsel the occupants.[5]

Eyton-Jones was known to be a member of the Sir Garnet Wolseley Lodge of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes.[5]

Death

His wife Jane Elizabeth Eyton-Jones died during the war in May, 1940.[15] A severe attack of shingles inspired him to write a letter of resignation to the bishop in the winter of 1942, however he died in the spring of 1943.[11]

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References
  1. "Births". Wrexham Advertiser: 5. 19 September 1863. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  2. "Arthur David Eyton-Jones". ancestry.com. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
  3. Anon (24 December 1896). "Marwolaeth Mr. Edward Samuelsen,1896-12-24 Y Cymro - Welsh Newspapers Online - The National Library of Wales". Y Cymro (in Welsh) (344). Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  4. "Former Mayors and Lord Mayors". Liverpool Town Hall. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  5. Anon (27 March 1943). "Death Of Vicar Of ST. Paul's, Rev. H. M. Eyton Jones". www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk (4397). Hounslow. p. 1. Retrieved 8 March 2019.(registration required)
  6. "Berrow's Worcester Journal". Newspapers.com. 24 December 1887. p. 7. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  7. Venn, John (2011). Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. Cambridge University Press. p. 449. ISBN 9781108036122. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  8. "A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF MISSIONARY INFORMATION". The Church Missionary Intelligencer and Record. 14. 1889. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  9. Stock, Eugene (1909). "My Recollections". London : J. Nisbet. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  10. The Gospel in All Lands. proprietor. 1891. p. 521. Retrieved 30 March 2019. eyton-jones.
  11. A Tribute In Memory Of Hugh Mortimer Eyton-Jones: Vicar of St. Paul's Hounslow Heath 1911 - 1943. Hounslow: Winston Kennay Anslow. 1943.
  12. "O'Conor Peking to Mansfield Foochow" (PDF). Great Britain, Public Record Office: OF "228/1194": 466. 9 August 1895. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  13. "THE FLOWER MOUNTAIN MURDERS. PART THREE: THE BACKGROUND. TIMELINE: MAY 1870—JULY 1895" (PDF). Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  14. Anon (13 October 1900). "Church Missionary Society: Sale of works at Wrexham". The Wrexham Advertiser. 52: 5. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  15. "Jane Elizabeth Eyton-Jones, England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995". www.ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 9 April 2019.(registration required)
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