Allshorn, Florence (1887-1950)

Anglican missionary and trainer of missionaries

Born in Sheffield, England, Allshorn was orphaned by the age of three and was brought up by her mother’s governess. She studied art and domestic science and came into active Christian faith through contact with the cathedral in Sheffield, where she later worked. In 1920 she went under the Church Missionary Society (CMS) to Uganda, where she taught in the girls’ school at Iganga, Busoga. The relationship with a senior missionary was very difficult, and this highlighted for her the need for love between missionary colleagues. On leave in 1925, she was found to have tuberculosis and spent two years in treatment. The CMS then invited her to run their training college for women missionaries, which she did until 1940. Her emphasis was very much on spiritual life and on relationships. With a vision of founding a community where such emphases could be continued, she founded St. Julian’s Community, now at Coolham, West Sussex, which continues to the present day. A guest house and retreat center, it draws mostly unmarried women, many of them connected with CMS. In the training of CMS missionaries, Florence Allshorn’s concerns have remained important.

Jocelyn Murray, “Allshorn, Florence,” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 14.

This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright © 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved.

Bibliography

Primary

Allshorn, Florence. “Corporate Life on a Mission Station.” In International Review of Missions 23 (October 1934): 497-511.

_____. King Khama of Bechuanaland. n.p.: Sheldon Press, 1927.

_____. The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn: Selected and Arranged by a Member of St. Julian’s Community. London: SCM Press, 1957.

Secondary

Brown, Eleanor. “Florence Allshorn: We are Made to Love as Stars are Made to Shine.” In Mission Legacies: Biographical Studies of Leaders of the Modern Missionary Movement. Edited by Gerald H. Anderson, et al., 110-16. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1994.

Fenn, J. Eric. “St. Julian’s Comes of Age.” In Frontier 5 no. 2 (Summer 1962): 406.

Oldham, J.H. Florence Allshorn and the Story of St. Julian’s. London: SCM Press, 1951.

Potts, Margaret. St. Julian’s: An Experiment in Two Contintents. London: SCM Press, 1968.

Warren, Max. Crowded Canvas: Some Experiences of a Lifetime. London: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd., 1974.

_____. “St. Julian’s.” In Theology 65 no. 503 (May 1962): 177-80.

Links

Jocelyn Murray’s article from the BDCM appears also in the online Dictionary of African Christian Biography.