Edith Elizabeth (Broomhall) Ritchie (1867 - 1974)

Born 23 Oct 1867 in London, Middlesex, England

Ancestors

Wife of Gilbert Ritchie Sen. — married 7 Aug 1896 in Shanghai, China

Descendants

Died 1974 at about age 106 in Glasgow, Scotland

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Edith was born in 1867 in Westbourne Grove, London. In 1871, the family moved to Godalming, Surrey and here in this more rural setting, Edith acquired her great love of nature, flowers, particularly primroses, and trees, a love which went with her all through her life. However, only 4 years later her father, Benjamin Broomhall, aged 46, became the home secretary of the China Inland Mission and he and his family of ten children moved back to London, this time to live in Pyrland Road. Grannie told us once that her job on a Saturday was to clean down the stairs, no mean task in a three-storey house! During her years there, she met many missionaries from China and heard so many stories about the new work there. So, just before her 21st birthday, she herself sailed to China as a missionary of the C.I.M. She didn’t even like the look of stormy seas, so was relieved when the whole journey was calm. The captain told her it was the smoothest passage of his naval career. After language study she went to Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province to join big sister and brother, Gertrude and Hudson. She wrote home about the disappointment at first of the very scanty welcome she and Gertrude had in many of the homes they visited. Part of their remit as missionaries was waging war against opium smoking and the binding of women’s feet. But things obviously improved. During her early years there, Edith and Gertrude travelled around many parts of the Province. Quite a caravan… a senior lady missionary at the front in a mule cart, then Edith on a mule and Gertrude on a donkey followed by a mule carrying luggage. Once the poor mule at the back couldn’t cope with all the luggage on a steep mountain pass so Edith got off and walked so the two mules could share the load! One Chinese pastor wrote to her parents in London telling of their joy at meeting the two dearly beloved Broomhall ladies and assuring them of his and God’s care of them. And some five years later, she met a young Scottish missionary called Gilbert Ritchie, also working in Shanxi province and that’s how she ultimately became our grandmother! In 1899, Edith had been in China for 11 years without a break. So, she and Grandpa left for Scotland with 2 small children, very aware of the tensions in Shanxi province. Shortly after their return to UK, they learnt that very few of their colleagues in Shanxi had survived the massacres of the boxer rising. All the Broomhall ‘children’, Gertrude (now married to Dixon Hoste) Hudson and Marshall, who had come to China after Edith, survived the rebellion. The above is from a family tree given to me (Peter Raath). "My aunt always remembered all my family right to the very last year and expressed to us the wonderment that the Lord took my mother in 1973 before herself," said Edwin Broomhall.

Edith Elizabeth Broomhall was born in October 1867 in London, London, her father, Benjamin, was 38, and her mother, Amelia, was 32. She married Gilbert Ritchie on 7 August 1896 in Shanghai, China. They had seven children in 12 years. She died having lived for more than 100 years. She died in 1974 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, at the age of 106.

Edith Elizabeth Broomhall Baptism Date: 30 Jan 1868 Baptism Place: Kensington and Chelsea, Middlesex, England Church: Denbigh Road Wesleyan Methodist Chapel Father: Benjamin Broomhall Mother: Amelia Hudson Broomhall Edith Elizabeth Broomhall Gender: Female Birth Date: abt 1868 Marriage Date: 7 Aug 1896 Marriage Age: 28 Marriage Place: Shanghai, China Father: Benjamin Broomhall Spouse: Gilbert Ritchie Spouse Gender: Male Spouse Marriage Age: 24 Father In Law: Alexander Ritchie

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