Florence Mackenzie

Life

Florence Mackenzie was born in 1911. Her father, Hugh Mackenzie, and her mother, Agnes Hall, were both Canadian missionaries. Genealogical records indicate that she was born in China, and she is known to have been one of seven children. She trained as a nurse in Toronto, Canada.

While growing up in Tianjin, China, she is said to have been a student in a Sunday school class taught by Eric Liddell, who was ten years her senior. The two were married in Tianjin in 1934. Their eldest daughter, Patricia, was born in Tianjin in 1935, and their second daughter, Heather, followed in 1937.

By 1941 the presence of Japanese forces had made conditions in China dangerous, and the British government advised its nationals to leave the country. Her husband decided to remain and continue his work at the rural mission station of Xiaozhang. Florence, then pregnant with their third child, took their two daughters to her family in Canada in May 1941, and four months later she gave birth to a third daughter, Maureen. Eric Liddell was interned in the Japanese civilian camp at Weixian in 1943 and died there of a brain tumor on February 21, 1945. Maureen therefore never met her father.

After her husband's death, Florence returned to nursing at Toronto General Hospital while raising her three daughters. Around 1951 she married Murray, a widower and family friend, and moved to a farm in Binbrook, Ontario. She is reported to have died in Hamilton in 1984.

Ministry and Work

After her marriage she is known to have engaged in missionary work in Tianjin alongside her husband in connection with the London Missionary Society. However, few confirmed records describe any independent ministry she carried out or any position she held within the mission. After she and her husband were separated, she supported her household on her own by working as a nurse.

Influence on the Korean Church

No activities directly connected with the Korean church have been documented. In Korea her name appears mainly as the wife of Eric Liddell in writings that introduce his life.

Assessment

Most of the sources concerning her survive as part of biographies of Eric Liddell, so little is known of her life as an individual. Accounts of her generally mention her wartime separation from her husband and her raising of three daughters while working as a nurse after his death. No criticisms or controversies concerning her are known.