Frank Schofield

Life

Schofield was born in 1889 in Rugby, England, and emigrated to Canada in 1907. Working on a farm sparked his interest in livestock health. After graduating from the Ontario Veterinary College, he conducted research in bacteriology and earned a doctorate. He is reported to have had polio, which left him with limited use of one arm and one leg.

In 1916, at the request of Oliver R. Avison, he came to Korea with his wife, Alice, as a medical missionary of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. He taught bacteriology and hygiene at Severance Union Medical College. He learned Korean quickly and is said to have been lecturing in Korean within about two years. He also adopted the Korean name Seok Ho-pil (石虎弼), which expressed his resolve to help the Korean people with a will as firm as stone and a heart like a tiger's. He reportedly first wrote the name as 石好必 and later changed the Chinese characters.

Under pressure from the Japanese Government-General of Korea after the March First Movement, he returned to Canada in 1920. He then taught for many years at the Ontario Veterinary College and gained an international reputation for his research on animal diseases. He returned to Korea in 1958 and remained there, teaching at the Seoul National University College of Veterinary Medicine. He died in Seoul on April 12, 1970. In accordance with his wish to be buried in Korean soil, he was interred at the Seoul National Cemetery.

Ministry and Achievements

• Documenting the March First Movement: He is known to have been the foreigner whom Yi Gap-seong, one of the 33 National Representatives, informed of the plans for the independence demonstrations on the eve of the uprising. On March 1, 1919, he photographed the demonstrations in central Seoul.
• Exposing the Jeamni Incident: In April 1919, Japanese troops in Jeamni, Hyangnam-myeon, Suwon County, Gyeonggi Province (present-day Hwaseong), locked villagers inside a church and set it on fire, massacring them. Schofield went to the site, investigated, and made the atrocity known abroad through photographs and reports.
• Aiding victims of torture: He visited Seodaemun Prison, where he met imprisoned independence activists such as No Sun-gyeong and Yu Gwan-sun. He demanded that Governor-General Hasegawa Yoshimichi stop the use of torture, and in August 1919 he met Japanese Prime Minister Hara Takashi to protest.
• Writing for the press: He published articles in newspapers such as the English-language Japan Advertiser in Japan and The Globe in Canada, criticizing the discrimination and violence of colonial rule.
• Service after liberation: While teaching at Seoul National University, he continued to lead Bible studies with students. He supported orphanages and vocational schools and cared for poor students and orphans.
• Veterinary research: He studied the hemorrhagic disease (sweet clover disease) that cattle develop after eating spoiled sweet clover. This research led to the development of anticoagulants that prevent blood clots in humans.

Influence on the Korean Church

Schofield is regarded as an example of medical missions in which faith was expressed through medical education and the defense of human rights rather than through church planting. Beginning in his years at Severance, he organized English Bible classes in which he taught Scripture to students. Because the victims of the Jeamni Incident were church members killed inside a church building, his records have become an important source for understanding the relationship between the March First Movement and Christianity. His funeral in 1970 was held at Namdaemun Church in Seoul. Media outlets of various denominations, including Kosin News, still present him as one of the leading missionaries in the history of missions in Korea.

Assessment

The South Korean government awarded him the Order of Cultural Merit in 1960 and the Order of Merit for National Foundation (Independence Medal) in 1968. He is reported to have been the first foreigner buried in the patriots' section of the Seoul National Cemetery. In 2015 a statue of him was erected in the park of the Jeamni March First Movement Martyrs Memorial Hall in Hwaseong, and Seoul National University holds an annual memorial service in his honor. "34th National Representative" is not an official title but a widely used epithet honoring his contributions. Records indicate that the Japanese Government-General of Korea regarded him at the time as a highly dangerous agitator. Those who honor him also emphasize that, after liberation as well, he showed concern for the vulnerable and opposed injustice and corruption. No widely known criticism of his activities has been identified.