"Lest We Forget" Revisited: A Memoir

by J C Ker

Overview

In 1897, Lucy Christina Murray left Canada, the land to which her Scottish ancestors had emigrated nearly a century earlier, to sail overseas with her new husband. Her husband, William Pollock Ker, was a British consular official in China and, in 1900, they were posted to Peking and found themselves besieged in the Legation Quarters during the Boxer Rebellion. They emerged to read their obituaries in The Times of London and to face many more challenging years in China. They witnessed, firsthand, the end of the Qing dynasty and the emergence of the Republic of China. Despite personal tragedies, they grew to love and admire the emerging country. As the wife of a consular official who spent over thirty years in Asia, Lucy’s life was always challenging. On the domestic front, she had to be ready to pack up a household at very short notice and to adjust to arbitrary and frequent new postings. On the public front, she found each posting required new skills. One posting required her to act as hostess for Sir Ernest Satow in Peking. In Tientsin, she found herself organising the relief of the incoming White Russians. During her lifetime, she crossed paths with many historically interesting figures, both Chinese and European, including the last Emperor of China.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781543913095
Publisher:	BookBaby
Publication date:	11/01/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	270
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

J C Ker is a granddaughter of Christina Lucy Murray and William Pollock Ker. She is passionately interested in social history and has been actively researching her ancestors' fascinating and tumultuous lives. Future planned publications will include family history dating back to 1600's in Scotland and 1700's in India.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

I The early years In Canada 3

II Across the Atlantic in Scotland 18

III Lucy meets Bill 28

IV A proposal 33

V A honeymoon 38

VI 1897-Soochow 42

VII October 1898 - Shanghai 53

VIII May 1899 - Peking 57

IX Catalysts for the Boxer Rising 66

X Life in the British legation 69

XI Peking 1900 - The tension mounts 76

XII After the siege 114

XIII Sir Ernest Satow 120

XIV What does a consular wife do all day? 125

XV 1901 - Bill appointed consul in Wuhu 142

XVI 1902 - Lucy and Bill on leave 149

XVII 1903 - Back in Wuhu 156

XVIII 1905 - Nanking 165

XIX 1908 - Tientsin 173

XX 1909 - Peking 175

XXI 1910 - Home leave 182

XXII 1911 - Peking 187

XXIII 1914 - War is declared 202

XXIV 1917 - Lucy braves the Atlantic 205

XXV 1919 - Tientsin 214

XXVI Lucy and the Salvation Army 226

XXVII Last days in China 232

XXVIII Lucy and Bill back in England 237

XXIX The Second World War and after 244

Bibliography 249

Index 250