Editing Percy C. Mather

{{Short description|British missionary}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
'''Percy Cunningham Mather''' ({{lang-zh|c=马尔昌}}; 9 December 1882 – 24 May 1933) was a pioneer British Protestant Christian [[missionary]] to China, the second [[China Inland Mission]] missionary to [[Xinjiang]].

Mather was born in [[Fleetwood]], [[Lancashire]], England in 1884, the son of a railway employee and an Irish nurse. Mather went into railway service like his father. In 1903 he was converted to Christianity through the ministry of J. H. Doddrell of the [[Wesleyan Methodist Church (Great Britain)|Wesleyan Methodist Church]]. Mather soon became a Sunday school teacher and local preacher. While his ordination was delayed, he learned about the China Inland Mission (CIM) and decided to go to China after assisting his sister financially to get an education.

In 1910 Mather sailed to Shanghai, then moved up the [[Yangtze]] river to attend the [[Anqing]] language school. Afterward he was stationed in [[Ningguo]] in [[Anhui]] Province. Mather was influenced by reading [[Roland Allen]]'s book, ''Missionary Methods: St. Paul's or Ours?'' and then he volunteered to join [[George W. Hunter (missionary)|George Hunter]] in [[Ürümqi]], [[Xinjiang]], arriving there in 1914. Until 1926 the two itinerated in Xinjiang and [[Outer Mongolia]]. When Mather joined him, Hunter had a work among all the different peoples of Central Asia. Mather joined full heartedly in the work, but his specific focus was towards the [[Oirats|Mongols]]. Quickly he set about learning Mongol, but the only Mongol teacher he could find in the city with extra time was in the local jail. Afterward he produced a grammar, and a dictionary in [[Oirat language|Oirat Mongolian]],<ref name="Phillips2001">{{cite book|author=David J. Phillips|title=Peoples on the Move: Introducing the Nomads of the World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=54gyRnhIugkC&dq=percy+mather+oirat&pg=PA336|year=2001|publisher=William Carey Library|isbn=978-0-87808-352-7|page=336}}</ref> as well as a grammar and dictionary of [[Manchu language|Manchu]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gfamissions.org/pages/learn-and-promote/detail/3/48/ |title=Percy Mather |date=2006-05-15 |website=Gospel Fellowship Association Missions }}</ref> but they were never published, and it is unclear what became of the manuscripts.

Following intensive medical studies while on furlough in 1927, Mather returned to China to concentrate on medical work as well as on translations, grammars, and dictionaries of Mongolian languages.

Mather was caught up in hostilities in China during the [[Chinese Civil War]], and was accused of political intrigue. He died on 24 May 1933 of [[typhus]], during the [[Battle of Urumqi (1933)|siege of Ürümqi]], when caring for people wounded during the [[Kumul Rebellion]] led by [[Ma Zhongying]]. He was buried in Ürümqi.

==Bibliography==
* ''George Hunter: Apostle of Turkestan'' by [[Alice Mildred Cable|Mildred Cable]] and [[Francesca Law French|Francesca French]], (1948)<ref>{{cite book|title=Central Asiatic Journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-FNxAAAAMAAJ&q=percy+mather+oirat|year=1974|publisher=O. Harrassowitz|page=35}}</ref>
* ''Percy Mather: The Making of a Pioneer''  by [[Alice Mildred Cable]] & [[Francesca Law French]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080908034008/http://www.gfamissions.org/missionary-biographies/mather-percy-1882-1933.html Mather, Percy (1882-1933)]
* [http://www.mundus.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search?coll_id=996&inst_id=4&keyword=Prose SOAS Archives Information]
* [http://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/an-important-archive-of-autograph-letters-signed-1-c-7ax3b65vjt Past auction of some Mather letters and Pictures]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==See also==
*[[Historical Bibliography of the China Inland Mission]]
*[[George W. Hunter (missionary)|George W. Hunter]]
*[[Emil Fischbacher]]
*[[Otto F. Schoerner]]
*[[List of China Inland Mission missionaries in China]]
{{Protestant missions to China}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mather, Percy C}}
[[Category:1882 births]]
[[Category:1933 deaths]]
[[Category:English Methodist missionaries]]
[[Category:Methodist missionaries in China]]
[[Category:People from Fleetwood]]
[[Category:Christian missionaries in Central Asia]]
[[Category:British missionaries in China]]
[[Category:British missionary linguists]]
[[Category:20th-century British lexicographers]]
[[Category:Christianity in Xinjiang]]