Photographs collected or taken by Rev Ian Ralph Matheson Latto

Individual and group photographs of PCE missionaries in China. Locations comprise Kuliang, Chuanchow [Quanzhou], Fukien [Fujian] & Foochow [Fuzhou] with individuals depicted including Ian Latto, Peter & Constance Anderson, David Landsborough, Hope Moncrieff and Doris Arrowsmith, 1936-1947. All images have captions (some detailed) and most have dates.

Photographs of missionaries (many when retired) in UK including Norman & Phyllis Tunnell, Ian & Joyce Latto, Edward & Gladys Band, Reg & Ella Nobbs, David & Jean Lansborough, 1959-1990. All images have captions and dates.

Group photograph of those attending the Three Missions Council (American Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church of England & Dutch Reform Church), January 1936. Attached to reverse is a key to those depicted in the photograph, many of whom were PCE missionaries.

Ian Ralph Matheson Latto was born in Birmingham in 1912 the sixth child of two parents of Scottish descent. His school days were spent in Birkenhead on Merseyside, a degree at Liverpool University and then a spell at Westminster Theological College. Latto was ordained in 1935 as a minister in the Presbyterian Church of England. Shortly afterwards he was dispatched to Fukien provenance in South China where he served in the towns and villages around Yungchun [Yongchun] and then Chuanchow [Quanzhou].

In 1945, whilst on furlough, Rev Latto married Joyce Crichton in Hong Kong Cathedral. Returning to China, the couple worked in Chuanchow [Quanzhou] and raised two children before they were compelled to leave China in 1950. In 1951 Rev Latto was offered a missionary post in Formosa [Taiwan] but declined instead accepting a posting at the end of the year to serve in Newbiggin-by-the Sea in Northumberland. In 1956 Rev Latto and his family relocated to St Ninian's Church in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Lancashire, and again in 1970 to St Andrew's Church, Waterloo, Liverpool. He retired to Malpas in Cheshire in 1979 where he served for a number of years as chaplain to the Lancashire & Cheshire Federation of Scottish Societies. Rev Latto died in Hinckley, Leicestershire on 16 March 2011.

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Gift from Ms Janet Lindley of Hinckley in Leicestershire, 20th August 2012

The archives of the Foreign Mission of the Presbyterian Church of England, including individual files on many of those named above, are held here at SOAS.