Gladys was her name, but Oswald Chambers called her Gladiolus.
The Bible Training College principal had a penchant for nicknames and when three pretty girls arrived in 1913, he renamed them all.
Gladiolus, as a flower, means “sword, strength and integrity.”
It’s an apt description of a determined woman who remained firm in her faith despite a number of challenges throughout the world.
Born in India, Gladys came from a large family. Her father, Thomas Ingram, was a barrister.
The family returned to England after Gladys’ birth and she grew up in Wimbledon, not far from the Donnithorne family.
(Four Ingram children married four Donnithorne children.)
Her parents knew William and Evangeline Booth, founders of the Salvation Army.
Gladys’ older brother George became an Evangelical Christian while at Cambridge and met Oswald Chambers. It may have been through George that she later learned of the Bible Training College in Clapham Common.
Gladys at the BTC
Gladys entered the BTC in the fall 1913 term to explore becoming a missionary. (One of her brothers worked in India as a missionary).
About Oswald, she wrote:
“He had a great sense of humour and was exceedingly observant, often he seemed to read one’s thoughts before they found expression.
“[Oswald] was so very human and without a trace of ‘religiosity’ about him. He was absolutely real, and there was no division in his life between the sacred and the secular.”
“Gladiolus” also joined several other BTC students on a Yorkshire summer holiday with the Chambers family.
“By living in such close contact with Mr. Chambers and his wife, and by seeing the simplicity of their lives and their unwavering devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, we learnt many lessons that we can never forget.”
World War I
Like many BTC students, Gladys wanted to join the YMCA work in Egypt. While waiting, she assisted Biddy and swapped letters with Oswald–who was full of advice.
It took nearly a year for permits to come and during that time, she lived with her family in Wimbledon.
She spent a great deal of time with the convalescing Vyvyan Donnithorne.
A Chinese scholar and engineer dreaming of missionary work in China, Vyvyan enlisted in the army at the start of the war.
A severe leg wound at Loos in January 1916, for which he received the Military Cross, ended his military career.
The two became close, Vyvyan proposed, Gladys accepted, and orders came for her to go to Egypt.
Vyvyan gave her a small gold ring and she sailed away with Bill and Sphinx. They didn’t see each other until the end of the war.
Gladys in Egypt
With OC slicing bread (Wheaton College Library)
Once in Egypt, Gladys worked first with Miss Ashe at the Alexandria Soldier’s Home and then at Zeitoun.
She sang at the YMCA’s Ezbekiah Gardens camp in downtown Cairo and managed the Zeitoun food canteen.
Of her experiences, she wrote:
“In many ways Zeitoun was a unique Y.M.C.A. centre, because Mr. Chambers was a unique leader.
“Shall we ever be able to forget those mighty meetings in the Devotional Hut? or some of the talks around the supper-table after the work of the day was over?
“Or the blackboard hung in a prominent position announcing the evening meeting, with a daily thought written on it, such as “Beware of anything that competes with loyalty to Jesus Christ,” or, “Be godly in the grubby details,” or, “When God says something never dispute, but do it”?
She worked there when Oswald Chambers died and Biddy asked her to sing “Jesus Triumphant,” at the Zeitoun memorial service.
At Christmas 1917, she visited Oswald’s grave with Jimmy Hanson, Eva, and Miss Riley. There, they thanked God for their beloved teacher and how his words led them to a deeper walk with Jesus.
Gladys and Eva repatriated to England in January 1919.
Post-World War I
Vyvyan Donnithorne eagerly awaited her return!
Circa 1926 (Wheaton College Library)
They wed in September 1919 with Biddy and the other BTC friends in attendance.
Shortly thereafter, they sailed to China to begin missionary work in Szechuan.
Their only child, Audrey, was born there in 1922.
In 1925, Red Lantern bandits kidnapped the family while on holiday, along with six other missionaries.
The kidnappers marched them through hills and valleys for three weeks, leaving them all insect bitten and hungry.
Ransomed healthy and safe, Vyvyan wrote of the friendly country people they encountered and hoped to return to them with the Gospel!
Life in China became increasingly difficult for missionaries in the 1930s.
When Vyvyan became ill in 1942, he went to India for recovery and then could not return to China. Gladys joined him in India the next year and they relocated to Hong Kong, where they lived for the rest of their lives.
Hong Kong Missionary Life
World Vision supported Gladys’s work in the 1960s. President Ted Engstrom wrote that “Aunt Gladys,” worked among the displaced and impoverished people in Hong Kong’s “Forbidden City.”
“Mrs. Donnithorne was not afraid of getting her hands dirty as she ministered to opium addicts, orphaned children and disenfranchised Chinese in the heart of the city.
“Every time I was with her, as she shared her burden and concern, I was deeply moved in my spirit to recognize the sacrifice of this dear lady as she ministered in Christ’s name.”
Oxfam
Gladys also worked with Oxfam, as described in A Cause for Our Times.
“Mrs. Donnithorne did not exactly run a project; whatever she did was the project.
A ministering angel by method and instinct, she unearthed pockets of misery on rooftops and in alleyways of the kind the authorities were loathe to admit existed.
“She was prepared to go anywhere, however distressing, moving around among the most pitiful cases to bring a little extra in food or cash . . .
Her activity was not particularly orderly or planned; but its sincerity could not be doubted nor that it brought solace into some poverty-stricken lives.”
Gladys charmed Oxfam into funding a number of projects for the poor, including refugees to Hong Kong from China in the 1950s and 1960s.
She died in 1977 and is buried beside her husband in Hong Kong.
Final observations
Later in life (Donnithorne family)
Gladys Emma Ingram Donnithorne led a full life devoted to God on three continents, originally inspired by Oswald Chambers’ teachings.
As she reflected in 1933 on her experiences with Oswald in Egypt (as noted above), Gladys wrote:
“The message they bring is living in my heart to-day and is a constant inspiration to me in this far-away part of China.
“And so with those men and women now scattered all over the world who have got to know the Lord through the spoken or written word of His servant, I say—Thank God for Oswald Chambers.”
And thanks to God for his good and faithful servant, Gladys.
Tweetables
How did Oswald Chambers inspire a missionary woman to China? Click to Tweet
The end result of Oswald Chambers’ teaching: World Vision, Oxfam, and refugees in Hong Kong. Click to Tweet
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Very interesting. Thanks, Michelle!