Susan Baxter

Who was Susan Baxter?

Baxter, Susan Harriet Sophia, also known as 白思德 in Chinese community, was a British missionary and educator in Hong Kong.

Susan was the third child born to Joanna and Robert Baxter. A parliamentary solicitor of Westminster and a man of strong religious convictions, Robert’s evangelical zeal made an impact on the first two bishops of Victoria, Hong Kong, George Smith and Charles Alford when they served in Doncaster in the 1840s and 1850s respectively. Influenced by her father, Susan became a missionary to China.

Around 1860, Lydia Smith, the Bishop's wife who was a member of the Society for Promoting Female Education, planned to set up a Diocesan Native Female Training School in Hong Kong and appealed for teachers to serve in. Susan responded the call and left for Hong Kong in April 1860. On arrival she learnt that the local ladies’ committee had already appointed a teacher to the position she hoped to fill, so she set up several schools herself, which included:

an English school in Mosque Street for European children of soldiers and abandoned Eurasian orphans,

a Chinese girls’ day school in Staunton Street, and