Gladys Aylward - 12/03/18

Irvine Seagate Rotary’s speaker on Monday was Barbara Graham, from Strathclyde University’s Centre for Lifelong Learning, talking about women missionaries from their heyday in the Victorian era, and later in particular about Gladys Aylward. 

Gladys was the inspiration for the film ‘The Inn of the Sixth Happiness’, a highly romanticised version of part of her life in China in the 1930s and 1940s.  Gladys was determined to spread Christianity to the Chinese, and in 1930 saved up sufficient to travel by train across Siberia to Japan and on to China, this being cheaper than the sea passage.  She joined a mission, and spent her life in charitable work in difficult circumstances. 

A Vote of Thanks was proposed by Ian Dickson.  Seagate’s Charity Race Night, in aid of the Chernobyl Children, will be at Bogside on Friday 27 April