| Description | John Edward Stanfield, the eldest son of the Rev. John Howard Stanfield (1888-1971) and Lilian May Stanfield (née Harris), Methodist Missionary Society missionaries in China, was a Signals Officer in the Royal Corps of Signals. He served in Special Operations Executive (S.O.E. Far East Force 136) in China from 1944 to 1946. In October 1945, Captain John Edward Stanfield was promoted to major to accept the official surrender of the Japanese forces in north China, at a ceremony in the Forbidden City, Peking (Beijing). John Stanfield was staying at the Grand Hotel, Peking (Beijing) in September/October 1945, when a ‘very nice old gentleman from a photographic studio who spoke very good English visited the hotel’, offering hand-coloured prints for sale. Stanfield purchased all the prints he had.
A selection of images in the Stanfield Family Collection are online on the Historical Photographs of China web site (ref: JS). See also DM3107/8 (related publications).
DM3114/1: Forty-one large (approximately 380mm x 280mm), hand-coloured, black and white, photographs of heritage architecture etc in and around Peking (Beijing). The photographs were taken by Mei Li Photographic Studio, Nan Chi Tze, Peking; Kang-Sing Chiao Photograph Co., Peking; and anon. Fourteen of the Mei Li prints are numbered and accompanied by printed descriptive notes. Also, captioning labels made for a display of some of these prints.
DM3114/2: Black and white photographs, 1940s. Subjects: the Japanese surrender, Peking (Beijing), 1945; General Adrian Carton de Wiart VC; Lady Seymour, wife of the British Ambassador; historic buildings in Peking (Beijing) – one hand-coloured; a porter wearing a pakol, with mountains in the background. Also a few photographs of Changsha (aftermath of ‘scorched earth’ destruction), Shansi (Shanxi), Sian (Xian), Yellow River (Huang He) and Hong Kong.
DM3114/3 Ephemera.
DM3114/3/1: Chinese vocabulary learning notebook, signed J. E. Stanfield.
DM3114/3/2: Three invitations to banquets, October 1945, Peking (Beijing), including to the ‘Grand Peace Banquet in Pekin Hotel, 10.10.45, after the [Japanese] Surrender ceremony’.
DM3114/3/3: Visiting cards (Captain Stanfield, Major Stanfield).
DM3114/3/4 Banknotes: China and Burma (under Japanese occupation); Malaya; Central Bank of China (two with signatures of those at Stanfield’s farewell party, Chungking (Chongqing), dated 13 January 1946).
DM3114/4 Publications/memoir.
DM3114/4/1: ‘At Home & Abroad’ A Missionary Magazine for Young People, published by Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, London, July 1924. Contains an article entitled ‘A Letter from China’, featuring images of ‘Puck’ and ‘Pixie’ together (‘Puck’ is John Stanfield. ‘Pixie’ is John’s sister Margaret, later Dr Margaret Hope Thom) and Puck on his first birthday, Paoking (Shaoyang, Hunan), China.
DM3114/4/2: ‘Yang Gwetze – Foreign Devils / Escape by River – January 1927, Central China’ by May Stanfield. Two copies.
DM3114/4/3: Large booklet containing photographic illustrations published by China Pictorial, given by Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese Ambassador to the UK, to Rev. John Stanfield, in 2015: “In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese people’s war of resistance against Japanese aggression and the world anti-fascist war”. |