Hannah Riddell
| Hannah Riddell | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1855 Barnet, north of London |
| Died | 1932 Kumamoto Kumamoto Prefecture Japan |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Anglican Missionary |
| Known for | Foundation of a leper hospital, Kaishun Hospital, in Kumamoto in 1895 and giving great influence to leprosy control of Japan |
Hannah Riddell (1855–1932) was an English woman who devoted her life to the care of patients with leprosy in Japan.
Hannah Riddell was born in 1855 in Barnet, then a village to the North of London. Her father was a sergeant in the Army who was engaged in the training of the local militia.
In 1877 the family moved to Mumbles in South Wales, and Hannah and her mother started a private school. The school was a success for some time but in 1889 it went into bankruptcy. Hannah's next job was as a superintendent for the YWCA in Liverpool. In 1890 she was selected by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) as a missionary to Japan. She arrived in Japan in 1891 and was transferred to Kumamoto, Kyūshū.
At Honmyoji, the most popular temple in Kumamoto, she witnessed leprosy patients begging for mercy and made up her mind to dedicate her life to their care.
Hannah successfully approached influential people such as leaders of the CMS, university professors, industrialists and statesmen, and, later, the imperial family of Japan. She created a close circle of supporters such as Grace Nott, one of the five missionaries who had come to Japan with her, and Professors Honda and Kanazawa. Founding a hospital was an extremely difficult task, but Kaishun Hospital (known in English as the Kumamoto Hospital of the Resurrection of Hope) was opened on 12 November 1895. Negotiations with the CMS were laborious, but in 1900 Hannah won control of the hospital, simultaneously quitting the CMS. She devoted the rest of her life to fund-raising for the hospital. Professors Honda and Kanazawa helped with obtaining the land for it.
The start of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 brought a great financial crisis. English donors, fearing trouble because of the fleet of Russian warships approaching Japan, immediately stopped sending money to Japan. However, Marquis Okuma, who had donated many cherry and maple trees for the grounds of the hospital, joined with Viscount Shibusawa to invite many officials and prominent persons to the Bankers' Club in Tokyo to listen to Hannah Riddell's appeal. At the meeting Professor Kanazawa spoke for Riddell to the effect that Kaishun Hospital was a good hospital worth supporting, since Riddell was independent of the CMS. As a direct effect of the meeting Riddell's financial troubles ended.
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