The End of the Chinese Mission

Former Methodist School in Wuhan, giving some idea of the scope of projects,
the more successful and wealthy missionary organisations were able to initiate.

With anti-missionary sentiment spilling over, work in Wuhan was for a while suspended. In the meantime, Herbert Sowerby and Ann Fanny Wombwell dealt with the matter of their indemnities, fully intending to return to Yichang and to Shashi once the political temperature had dropped, and their compensation received, or so the reports suggest.

The Bishop Boone Memorial School in Wuhan was re-opened, and with between fifty and sixty communicants now actively following the church in Shashi, it can be presumed that no-one wanted to see all the hard work go to waste. The episcopal records state that:

…the indemnity for the destruction of mission property at I-chang for which Bishop Boone had made claim just before his death was at this time paid; but the amount awarded was less than the Bishop's estimate called for. However, by the advice of the American minister and others the lesser sum was accepted. Reimbursement for Mr. Sowerby's personal losses had been made previously.

The records further note that however in 1894, Herbert Sowerby and Ann Fanny Wombwell withdrew from the operation. No reason is given, but perhaps after the narrow escape Herbert had experienced, the couple decided finally that it might be time to take themselves and their children to safer climes. And thus their Chinese adventure came to a conclusion.