Ernest Cromwell Peake

Ernest Cromwell Peake (18 August 1874 – 24 December 1950) was an English Missionary of the London Missionary Society who worked in China, from 1899 to 1922. He was the first medical missionary to work in Hengchow (Hengzhou, modern Hengyang), in Hunan Province, China where he set up a clinic and dispensary. He was also appointed head of the Mackenzie Memorial Hospital in Tianjin, China in 1912. Peake was known for teaching Chinese locals about medicine, and for being one of the first missionaries to bring modern medical techniques to China. He was the father of Mervyn Peake, the writer and poet.

Ernest Cromwell Peake was born on 18 August 1874 in the tropics of Madagascar. He was one of five children born to the two English missionaries, Phillip George Peake and Emilia Charlotte Scheiterberg. He was educated as a boarder at an English mission college, and proceeded to study medicine at Edinburgh University where he graduated in 1898 as M.B., Ch.B. In July 1903 at Kuling (from the English word "cooling"), a summer European missionary resort in Lushan about the Yangtze River, Peake met his soon to be wife Amanda Elizabeth Powell who had been in China since 1901. They got married in Hong Kong in December of that same year. His wife played the role as his assistant, and he described her as a small dark lively Welsh girl who sang and played the piano. They had two sons together while they were in China, Ernest Leslie Peake and Mervyn Peake.

In 1899, Peake was sent to the prefecture of Hengchow, Hunan located in inland China, by the London Missionary Society, a non-denominational missionary society, which was founded in 1795. Upon arrival, Peake was the only white doctor in the large hostile city, home to 200,000 people. When in Hengchow, Peake learned the native language with the help of a local tutor. From 1904 through 1912, Peake ran the only European hospital in Hengchow.

He inhabited China for 12 years, and at that time he faced obstacles due to the natural, cultural, and political environment change. While in China, Peake faced extreme heat and humidity that his European blood was not accustomed to. In order to escape the elements, he climbed the Lushan Mountains above Kiukiang. Culturally, Peake faced hostility, towards both himself and Western techniques, by the natives. However, while the citizens were not initially accepting, the Chinese government did approve of the London Missionary Society, and missionary efforts. For example, Governor Taotai Tan Chi-shwei was a progressive man who invited foreign missionaries to dine and stay in the capital. One evening, he had members of the London Missionary Society and the American Presbyterian Mission over to the capital for a feast in which he mimicked the American style. The Governor remarked that the American dining style saved so much time during the event that he stated that he would adopt the style for all of the future feasts he would hold. Thus, certain Chinese officials encouraged assimilation and the adoption of Western techniques that would better Chinese society.

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