Charles Studd
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 England (Eng) |
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| Batting style | Right-hand bat | |
| Bowling type | Right-arm fast-medium | |
| Tests | First-class | |
| Matches | 5 | 99 |
| Runs scored | 160 | 4,391 |
| Batting average | 20.00 | 30.49 |
| 100s/50s | 0/0 | 8/14 |
| Top score | 48 | 175* |
| Balls bowled | 384 | 22,659 |
| Wickets | 3 | 444 |
| Bowling average | 32.66 | 17.36 |
| 5 wickets in innings | 0 | 32 |
| 10 wickets in match | 0 | 9 |
| Best bowling | 2/35 | 8/40 |
| Catches/stumpings | 5/0 | 73/0 |
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Test debut: 28 August 1882 |
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Charles Thomas Studd was born 2 December 1860, Spratton, Northamptonshire, England, and died 16 July 1931, Ibambi, Belgian Congo.
In 1888 he married Priscilla Stewart, producing four daughters (Grace, Dorothy, Edith & Pauline) and two sons.
Studd is remembered both as a cricketer and missionary. As a cricketer he played for England in some of the most famous Ashes matches. As a British Protestant Christian missionary to China he was part of the Cambridge Seven, and later was responsible for setting up the Heart of Africa Mission (HAM) and the Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade (WEC).
Studd gained fame as a cricketer representing England's Cambridge University as a Gentlemen of India, Middlesex at Cricket. Charles was the youngest and most famous of The Studd Brothers. By the time he was sixteen he had started to excel at cricket and at nineteen was captain of his team at Eton College; after school he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was also recognised as an outstanding cricketer.
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[edit] His faith
Studd became a Christian during a Moody-Sankey campaign in England in 1878, when a visiting preacher at their home caught him on his way to play cricket. "Are you a Christian?" he was asked; as Charles' answer was not convincing enough, the guest pressed the point. Charles later recalled the moment:
- "I got down on my knees and I did say 'thank you' to God. And right then and there joy and peace came into my soul. I knew then what it was to be 'born again,' and the Bible which had been so dry to me before, became everything."
In 1884 after his brother George was taken seriously ill Charles was confronted by the question, "What is all the fame and flattery worth ...... when a man comes to face eternity?" He had to admit that since his conversion six years earlier he had been in "an unhappy backslidden state." As a result of the experience he said, "I know that cricket would not last, and honour would not last, and nothing in this world would last, but it was worth while living for the world to come."
[edit] Missionary work
As a result of his brother's illness and the effect it had upon him, he decided to pursue his faith through missionary work in China and was one of the "Cambridge Seven" who offered themselves to Hudson Taylor for missionary service at the China Inland Mission, leaving for there in February 1885. Of his missionary work he said,
Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.
On returning to England he was invited to visit America where his brother Kynaston had recently arranged meetings which had led to the formation of the Student Volunteer movement.
Between 1900-1906 Studd was pastor of a church at Ootacamund in Southern India and although it was a different situation to the pioneer missionary work he had undertaken in China, his ministry was marked by numerous conversions amongst the British officials and the local community. However, on his return home Studd became concerned about the large parts of Africa that had never been reached with the Gospel and in 1910 he went to the Sudan and was concerned by the lack of Christian faith in central Africa. Out of this concern Studd was led to set up the Heart of Africa Mission.
On first going to the Belgian Congo in 1913, Studd established four mission stations in an area then inhabited by eight different tribes. Then a serious illness to his wife required his return to England, but when he returned to the Congo in 1916 she had recovered sufficiently to undertake the expansion of the mission into the World Evangelisation Crusade with workers in South America, Central Asia and the Middle East as well as Africa. Supported by his wife's work of home, Studd built up an extensive missionary outreach based on his centre at Ibambi and although she made a short visit to the Congo in 1928 that was the only time they met again since she died in the following year. Two years later, still labouring for the Lord at Ibambi at the age of seventy, Charles Studd died, but his vision for China, India and Africa had expanded to reach the whole unevangelised world.
In total he spent some fifteen years in China and six in India on his missionary work and then he devoted the rest of his life to spreading the Gospel message in Africa, founding the Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade (now called Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ or WEC International). To this day, his name remains linked with the evangelisation of the Congo Basin.
When his parents died, he inherited a vast fortune of around £29,000, but gave away all of it to various missions. Which included £5,000 to be used for the Moody Bible Institute, £5,000 for George Muller mission work and his orphans, £5,000 for George Holland in Whitechapel, and £5,000 to Commissioner Booth Tucker for the Salvation Army in India.
[edit] The Cambridge Seven
The seven Cambridge students who became missionaries (known as the Cambridge Seven) to China were:
- C. T. Studd
- M. Beauchamp
- S. P. Smith
- A. T. Polhill-Turner
- D. E. Hoste
- C. H. Polhill-Turner
- W. W. Cassells
[edit] The famous Ashes
Studd played in the original Test against Australia where the Ashes were first named and was one of the last 2 batsman in. The match was low scoring and had been affected by recent rain. Australia batted first and scored 63 - and England only managed 101 in reply. In their second innings the Australians scored 122 -on the second day, England needed only 85 to win.
When England's last batsman went in the team needed only 10 runs to win, but the final batsman Peate scored only 2 before being bowled by Boyle. The astonished crowd fell silent, not believing that England could possibly have lost by 7 runs. When what had happened had sunk in the crowd cheered the Australians.
When Peate returned to the Pavilion he was reprimanded by the captain WG Grace for not allowing his partner at the wicket Charles Studd to get the runs. Despite Studd being one of the best batsmen in England Peate replied, "I had no confidence in Mr Studd, sir, so thought I had better do my best." By now the damage was done and the "Sporting Times" next headlined with the following famous phrase:
- IN AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE
- OF ENGLISH CRICKET
- WHICH DIED AT THE OVAL, 29th AUGUST, 1882,
- DEEPLY LAMENTED BY A LARGE CIRCLE OF
- SORROWING FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES
- R.I.P.
- N.B.-THE BODY WILL BE CREMATED AND THE
- ASHES TAKEN TO AUSTRALIA.
Studd's fame lives on though through the inscription preserved on the urn to this day, which reads:
- When Ivo goes back with the urn, the urn;
- Studds, Steel, Read and Tylecote return, return;
- The welkin will ring loud,
- The great crowd will feel proud,
- Seeing Barlow and Bates with the urn, the urn;
- And the rest coming home with the urn.
[edit] Studd family and related articles
[edit] References
- C.T. Studd: Cricketer and Pioneer by Norman Grubb ISBN 0-7188-3028-8
[edit] Further reading
[edit] See also
- List of China Inland Mission missionaries in China
- 19th Century Protestant Missions in China
- Christianity in China
