Death Of Notable
p. 42 · Read in the full issue
Missionary
ONE of the most notable missionary women of the South Seas, Mrs.
Margaret Mathieson Gunn, wife of Rev. Dr. William Gunn, died at Rose ville, Sydney, on January 18, at the age of 78. She assisted her husband in his mission work in the New Hebrides ior 35 years, and was widely known and highly esteemed.
Dr. and Mrs. Gunn came out from the Free Church of Scotland to the New Hebrides in 1883, and took the place of the Rev. J. Copeland, who had been working on Futuna for over 10 years. A little later they took over the work of the Rev. J. H. Lawrie, in Aneit
yum. The natives they found in these places in the ’eighties, were not exactly attractive. They were fierce, truculent and treacherous, and their customs and habits, in the eyes of Europeans, were repellant and horrible. But when Dr. and Mrs. Gunn retired in 1917, the natives of both Futuna and Aneityum were peaceful, decent-living folk, con forming generally to the teachings of Christianity. The great change in their way of living was the result of more than three decades of patient effort by Dr. Gunn and his clever, devoted wife.
Mrs. Gunn accompanied her husband on many of his most dangerous and arduous journeys, by boat and by land.
She devoted herself to the native wo men and children, and although, par ticularly in the early days, they en dured frightful hardships and discour agement, and were often close to death, her courage and her faith never fal tered. On her visits to the mainland.
Mrs. Gunn worked actively on behalf of the missions. She was a well-read woman, with much charm of manner, and was a popular lecturer. She was a direct descendant of John Mathieson, one of the Scottish Covenanters, ban ished for his faith 250 years ago; the late Sir William McCormick, professor of English Literature at St. Andrew’s
University, was a cousin; and James Hislop, a successful Scottish poet, was a relation.
Mrs. Gunn is survived by her hus band, Rev. Dr. Gunn probably the most famous of present-day Presbyter ian missionaries—and by two unmar ried daughters.
The work of Dr. and Mrs. Gunn is described in two books, “The Gospel in Futuna” and “Heralds of Dawn,” of which they were joint authors.