John Burdon

Who was John Burdon?

John Shaw Burdon was a British Christian missionary to China with the Church Mission Society who in time became a bishop.

Burdon was ordained to the priesthood by the Bishop of London in December 1852; and resigned in 1896. He opposed Britain's part in the Anglo-Chinese First and Second Opium Wars. In March 1874 he was consecrated bishop of the South China diocese of the Anglican Church in Victoria and Hong Kong. Burdon was a translator with Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky of the Book of Common Prayer.

Burdon was a friend and fellow travelling evangelist of the young Hudson Taylor. He married Harriet Ann, whom he lost to illness in 1854 in Shanghai. His second marriage in 1857 was to Burella Hunter Dyer, the daughter of missionary Rev.Samuel Dyer. She died the following year of cholera, also in Shanghai. His third wife also predeceased him.

The school, named Tong Wen Guan, was officially opened on 11 June 1862 and Burdon was hired as the first English instructor.