Big Red Book

Celebrating television's This Is Your Life

• HOME
• |
• SERIES
• |
• SUBJECTS
• |
• FEATURES
• |
• ARTICLES
• |
• INTERVIEWS
• |
• ABOUT

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Helen Wilson, nurse and missionary, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the Edinburgh Academy, from where the programme was then recorded. Helen had been led to believe she was there to watch a film about Rennie's Mill Camp in Hong Kong.

Helen, who was born in Aberdeen and badly burned in an accident as a child, worked as a dressmaker for nine years before training as a midwife. She joined the Church of Scotland as a missionary in 1921 and went to Ichang in China, although ill health forced her to return to Scotland in 1926. After recuperating, she qualified as a nurse at the age of 40 and returned to Ichang in 1931 as Matron of the Buchanan Memorial Hospital.

Helen was interned in a succession of prison camps during the Second World War before returning to the Buchanan Memorial Hospital, where she stayed until 1951 when the Communist Government expelled her to Hong Kong. There, she established a clinic at Rennie's Mill Camp, offering help and support to the thousands of Chinese refugees escaping the Communist regime.

programme details...

• Edition No: 159
• Subject No: 160
• Broadcast date: Mon 10 Apr 1961
• Broadcast time: 7.30-8.00pm
• Recorded: Tue 4 Apr 1961 8.00pm
• Venue: Edinburgh Academy
• Series: 6
• Edition: 30

on the guest list...

• Margaret - sister
• Gena Proven
• Ena McRostie
• Lily Howard-Knight
• Dr Tom Borthwick
• Arsine Alexander
• Rev Iain Campbell
• Rev Dr Forbes Tocher
• Dr Farquhar Macrae
• Louis Yen
• Bao Pao-Lo

production team...

• Researcher: Ronald Vivian
• Writer: Ronald Vivian
• Director: Michael Goodwin
• Producer: T Leslie Jackson

A Medical Life

examining the medical profession

Photographs of Helen Wilson This Is Your Life