Lionel Berners Cholmondeley

Lionel Berners Cholmondeley (1858–1945) was a younger brother of a British peer who became an Anglican minister, rector at Nippon Sei Ko Kai St. Barnabas Church at Ushigome in Shinjuku, Tokyo (near the central campus of Waseda University).^[1] He served as a Christian missionary in the Anglican Church in Japan and Chaplain to the British Embassy in Tokyo. He was also an historian, publishing the first English-language history of the Bonin Islands, also now known as the Ogasawara Islands.

Early life

Lionel Cholmondeley was descended from a younger brother of Robert Cholmondeley, 1st Earl of Leinster and Hugh Cholmondeley, father of Robert Cholmondeley, 1st Viscount Cholmondeley, from whom the Marquesses of Cholmondeley descend.^[2]

His grandfather was Thomas Cholmondeley, 1st Baron Delamere. The baron's third son was Henry Pitt Cholmondeley (15 June 1820 – 14 April 1905)^[2] who married Mary Leigh. This union produced nine children; and young Lionel was the couple's second son,^[3] born in Adlestrop in Gloucestershire.^[4]

Career

Like his elder brother, Lionel Cholmondeley felt called to serve the Church of England.^[3]

Cholmondely became a Christian missionary in Japan (1887–1921),^[5] arriving in Tokyo under the auspices of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) to serve under Edward Bickersteth, the first Anglican Bishop of South Tokyo.^[4]

Cholmondeley was named chaplain to the British Embassy in Tokyo, a position he held until his retirement and return to England in 1922.^[6]

Bonin Islands

Chichi-jima in the Meiji period during the time frame in which Cholmondeley would have made trips to the island.

Bishop Bickersteth was asked to send a clergyman to visit the English-speaking settlers on the Ogasawara Islands; and in response, he asked Cholmondely to sail to the islands in 1894. This initial trip was followed by sixteen others during the remainder of Cholmondeley's time in Japan.^[7]

Among other changes he observed during these years was the completion of undersea cable connections which ensured telegraph communication between the islands and Japan after 1906.^[7]

In 1915, Cholmondeley published The History of the Bonin Islands from the Year 1827 to the Year 1876 which included detailed observations of the changes which evolved after annexation by Meiji Japan in 1875.^[7]

Chronology

• 1894—1st visit. Cholmondeley joins Anglican catechist Ishida-san, who had come by previous steamer. This Japanese colleague returned with Cholmondeley to Tokyo.^[7]
• 1896—2nd visit. Cholmondeley joins Cameron Johnson, who was staying there at the time. The School-house built this year by settlers.^[7]
• 1897—3rd visit.^[7]

Selected works

• 1915 -- The History of the Bonin Islands from the Year 1827 to the Year 1876. London: Constable & Co. OCLC 4717954
• 1929 -- A book of devotions, compiled from many sources and the growth of many years. London. OCLC 315960899

Notes

References

• Bickersteth, Samuel. (1899) Life and letters of Edward Bickersteth, Bishop of South Tokyo. London: Sampson, Low Marston.
• Cholmondeley, Lionel Berners. (1915). The History of the Bonin Islands from the Year 1827 to the Year 1876. London: Constable & Co. OCLC 4717954
• Ion, A. Hamish. (1997). "Lionel Berners Cholmondeley: Chaplain in Tokyo, 1887-1921," pp. 180-189 in Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits (Ian Nish, editor). London: Routledge. 10-ISBN 1-873410-62-X; 13-ISBN 978-1-873410-62-2
• ____________. (1990). The Cross and the Rising Sun: The British Protestant Missionary Movement in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, 1865-1945. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. 10-ISBN 0-88920-218-4; 13-ISBN 978-0-88920-218-4; OCLC 22985041
• Ruvigny et Raineval, Melville Henry Massue. (1994). The Blood Royal of Britain. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company. 10-ISBN 0-8063-1431-1; 13-ISBN 978-0-8063-1431-0; OCLC 30572546