Taissumani: May 7, 1901 — The making of a missionary

KENN HARPER

In 1875 John Horden, the Bishop of Moosonee, put out a call for a young man to take up the post of missionary to the Inuit in lower Hudson Bay and James Bay. He wanted a practical man, preferably someone who had been a sailor.

Edmund James Peck took up the challenge. When the Church Missionary Society interviewed him, they asked what climate he preferred. “Cold,” was his one-word answer. He told them that he was “keenly desirous of being sent to the wildest and roughest mission-field in the world.”

The CMS had been founded in 1799 as a conservative, evangelical movement within the Church of England. Its activities centred on Africa and China, but it extended its reach to other parts of the globe including, eventually, the Arctic. The Society operated its own theological college and a pre-college preparatory institute. The focus at these training institutions was on taking poorly-educated young men with practical skills, and training them in theology, Hebrew, Latin, Greek and elementary medicine as well as practical trades like printing, tin-smithing, blacksmithing and carpentry.

Edmund Peck left his Hudson Bay mission in 1892, intent on moving farther north to minister to Inuit who had not heard the gospel. In 1894 he opened a mission on remote Blacklead Island, an isolated whaling station in Cumberland Sound.

The name of Peck is synonymous with early Arctic mission work, but if a second name were asked, it would surely be that of Reverend Greenshield. Edgar William Tyler Greenshield was born in 1877 in Newport on the Isle of Wight off the southern coast of England. His father was a draper who was determined that his son would receive a good education.

So young Edgar was sent to Portland House Academy, a local school designed to qualify boys for “commercial or professional life.” The curriculum was ambitious. Students got a thorough grounding in English, arithmetic, algebra, history, geography, scripture, languages, chemistry, shorthand and bookkeeping. Greenshield received an all-round education there, but he excelled only at chemistry.

In 1895, when he was 15, Greenshield left school. Probably his family could no longer afford his tuition. Putting his practical skills to use, he went to work as a cabinetmaker, working for his uncle. At about the same time, he decided that he wanted to become a missionary.

When he was only four years old, his father had taken him to hear a talk given by John Horden, the same man who had called Edmund Peck to the mission field. The Bishop of Moosonee was on a fund-raising tour in England, raising money to support his mission. After his lecture, Horden placed his hand on young Greenshield’s head and blessed him, praying that some day the boy would enter mission work. Greenshield always looked on that event as his calling to the field.

He applied to CMS for acceptance at the preparatory school, but was rebuffed because of his youth and lack of education. Determined, he went back to Portland House Academy, this time for night classes. In 1897 he reapplied to CMS and this time was accepted at the preparatory school. Two years later, he entered the theological college at Islington, a course designed to last three years.

Greenshield made it known that his heart was set on going to the Arctic, but CMS told him that there was little hope of this as the Society was not expanding its work there. Instead, he volunteered to go to Sierra Leone when his course of studies would be finished. Then, unexpectedly, Edmund Peck appealed for a young man to assist him on Blacklead Island. Greenshield still had a year to go to graduate but he spontaneously answered Peck’s call. On May 7, 1901, CMS accepted Greenshield as a missionary to the Inuit. Two months later he was heading north on the whaling vessel, Alert, bound for Blacklead.

The wheel had come full circle. A four-year-old boy had been blessed by John Horden, the bishop who had called Edmund Peck to the mission field. Twenty years later, that young man was bound for the Arctic to join Edmund Peck. The Inuit named Greenshield “ilataaqauq.” His association with Arctic missions would last for the next 12 years.

Taissumani: A Day in Arctic History recounts a specific event of historic interest, whose anniversary is in the coming week. Kenn Harper is a historian, writer and linguist who lives in Iqaluit. Feedback? Send your comments and questions to kennharper@hotmail.com.