Papers of Dr J. Preston Maxwell, medical missionary

Research papers and addresses written, and compiled, by J[ohn] Preston Maxwell, obstetric missionary to China for the English Presbyterian Church. Largely comprising reprints, typescript and published papers, including papers relating to medical conditions, the history of medicine in China and medical mission work.

In addition to works by J. Preston Maxwell, the collection includes medical articles by L. M. Miles, Arthur W. Woo, H. Y. Yeo, P. Doris Hoffman, N. J. Eastman, S. W. Lee, Marion Yang, Hans Smetana, Vera Hsiung, Amos Wong, Gordon King, C. K. Hsieh, C. H. Hu, A. Pillat. M. J. Hinkhouse, Dr and Mrs Wong, K. T. Lim, Van Gorder, L. C. Wu and Mr C. T. Feng in a compilation of 76 reprints, dated 1920-1931, from the work of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Union Medical College, Peiping [Beijing] where Maxwell was Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology; also addresses by Dr James L[aidlaw] Maxwell as Secretary of the China Medical Association, and an illustrated 60th birthday tribute to Maxwell by Amos Wong published in 'The Chinese Medical Journal', volume XLVI, number 2, February 1932.

Dr (John) Preston Maxwell, MB, BS, FRCS, was born on 5 December 1871 in Birmingham, where his father practised medicine. He was the son of Dr James Laidlaw Maxwell (1836-1921) of Edinburgh and Mary Anne Goodall (d 1918) of Handsworth. Both his father and his brother, James Laidlaw Jnr, were medical missionaries; as a pioneer medical missionary for the English Presbyterian Missionary Society, his father worked in mainland China and on the Island of Formosa.

J. Preston Maxwell studied at University College School, Hampstead and University College London (UCL), before training and working at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. He was made Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1897 and awarded the Gold Medal in Surgery by UCL in the following year. In 1899, he went out to Fujian in China as a medical missionary for the English Presbyterian Church and went on to spend most of hs professional life in China. He married (Edith) Lilly Isaacson in 1899; their daughter, Marjorie Steen, nee Marjorie Gordon Maxwell, was born in 1908.

Maxwell specialized in obstetrics and was a leading authority on foetal osteomalacia. He became a Director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Union Medical College in Beijing (a teaching hospital funded by the Rockerfeller Foundation) and President of the Chinese Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology; he also worked as Secretary to the medical committee of the Lord Mayor's Fund for the Relief of Distress in China. Some of his reseach papers were illustrated by his wife, Lilly, who was a proficient artist. He was awarded the Army and Navy Medal by the Chinese Republic and was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1929. Having returned to England at some point after 1935, he lived in Brinkley, Cambridgeshire and was elected Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Newmarket General Hospital. He died on 25 July 1961.

Source: adapted from text supplied by the archivist at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; the records.

Open, access to all registered researchers

Presented 28 May 2013.

Please see https://calmview.bham.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=XMS862&pos=1 for more information

Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections also holds the 'Papers of Dr James Laidlaw Maxwell and his son Dr John Preston Maxwell' (GB 0150 DA26).

Associated Materials

Records relating to J. Preston Maxwell may also be found at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London (GB 0102) and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (GB 1538 S64).

Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Director, Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections (email: special-collections@contacts.bham.ac.uk). Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. The Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

The papers were given to the donor, in two parts, by Mrs Marjorie Steen, Professor Maxwell's daughter.