Cecil Polhill

{{Infobox person

| name = Cecil Henry Polhill

| image = Cecil Polhill.jpg

| birth_name = Cecil Henry Polhill-Turner

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1860|02|23|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Bedfordshire, England

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1938|03|09|1860|02|23|df=yes}}

| death_place = Hampstead, London, England

| alma_mater = {{Plainlist|

}}

| occupation = Missionary

| spouse = Eleanor Agnes Marston

| father = Frederick Polhill-Turner

| mother = Emily Frances Barron

| relatives = Arthur Twistleton Polhill (brother)

}}

Cecil Henry Polhill, formerly Cecil Henry Polhill-Turner (23 February 1860P. Hocken, "Cecil H. Polhill - Pentecostal Layman", PNEUMA Vol.10/No2 (Fall 1988), 116-140.{{rp|116–140}} in Bedfordshire – 9 March 1938 in Hampstead, London"The Will of Cecil Henry Polhill", London Probate Department.) was a British Anglican missionary and Pentecostal leader.

Early life

Cecil Henry Polhill was born on 23 February 1860, second son of Frederick Polhill-Turner and Emily Frances Barron.{{cite web |url=https://www.all-saints-church-renhold.org/polhillfamilyhistory.html |title=The Polhill Family History |author= |date= |website=all-saints-church-renhold.org |access-date=30 April 2023}} He was educated at Eton College and Jesus College, Cambridge, before taking a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Bedfordshire Yeomanry.J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1973), 146. In 1885 he and his brother, Arthur Twistleton Polhill, became affiliated with the China Inland Mission (CIM) as part of the Cambridge Seven missionary band.J. Pollock, The Cambridge Seven (Fearn:Christian Focus Publications, 2006). They left London for western China on 5 February 1885. The Polhills studied local language in Hanzhong, southwest Shaanxi, then in 1887 moved into the neighbouring province Sichuan (formerly spelt Szechwan). Cecil Polhill was at first based at the provincial capital, Chengdu, and the eastern Sichuanese city Chongqing, but he felt drawn towards the people of Tibet.

File:Tibetan Pioneer Band 3.jpg's "Tibetan Pioneer Band" in Tibetan dress, of which Polhill assumed the leadership; {{circa|1894}}.]]

In 1894, at Annie Royle Taylor's suggestion, Polhill assumed the leadership of her Tibetan Pioneer Mission, whose members included Edvard Amundsen and Theo Sørensen. Under his guidance, the mission band continued their work in British Bhutan and on the Sino-Tibetan border.{{cite book |last=Suart Robson |first=Isabel |date=1909 |title=Two Lady Missionaries in Tibet |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.pahar.1851/page/87 |location=London |publisher=S. W. Partridge & Co. |pages=88–89}} After helping with mission work in Kalimpong, India in 1896, he moved to Tatsienlu, a Khams Tibetan city west of Sichuan,{{cite web |url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/3a61ded1-24db-3f0f-b4de-26ca26b41a4a |title=Papers of Cecil and Arthur Polhill |author= |date= |website=archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk |access-date=30 April 2023}} where he established a missionary station along with other four CIM missionaries in 1897, which paved the way for the future construction of the Gospel Church of Tatsienlu.{{cite web |url=https://omf.org/blog/2019/07/11/cim-missionary-workers-to-tibetan-highlands/ |title=A Description of CIM Missionary Workers to the Tibetan Highlands Prior to 1950 |last=Zi |first=Yu |date=2017 |website=omf.org |access-date=15 May 2021 |archive-date=16 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210516131745/https://omf.org/blog/2019/07/11/cim-missionary-workers-to-tibetan-highlands/ |url-status=dead }}{{cite journal |last=Zhu |first=Yaling |date=2015 |title=传教士顾福安及其康藏研究 |trans-title=The Missionary Robert Cunningham and His Tibetan Studies of the Khams Area |url=http://194.246.119.58/pdfs/cnkiImport/CJFD/ZAXK201501011.pdf |journal=藏学学刊 [Journal of Tibetology] |language=zh-hans |location=Chengdu |publisher=Center for Tibetan Studies of Sichuan University |issue=1 |page=192 |access-date=15 May 2021}} He returned from China in 1900 in the wake of the Boxer Uprising.J. Usher, "Cecil Henry Polhill: The Patron of the Pentecostals", PNEUMA 34 (2012).{{rp|40}}

Christian evangelism

Upon his return from China, Polhill inherited a fortune from his uncle Sir Henry Page-Turner Barron, 2nd Baronet,{{cite book |last1=Usher |first1=John |title=Cecil Polhill: Missionary, Gentleman and Revivalist: Volume 1 (1860-1914) |date=7 September 2020 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-43504-9 |page=13 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Cecil_Polhill_Missionary_Gentleman_and_R/6fP_DwAAQBAJ |access-date=20 April 2025 |language=en}} and spent much of his life donating to missionary causes.{{rp|50}} In 1908 Polhill visited Azusa Street, Los Angeles, where he had a Pentecostal experience.C.M.Robeck, The Azusa Street Mission and Revival (Nashville:Thomas Nelson, 2006, 69). Before returning to England Polhill wrote a cheque for £1500 to pay off the mortgage on the Azusa Street building.Robeck, 69. After returning to England Polhill attended Alexander Boddy's first Sunderland Convention,Confidence Vol.3/No.8 (August 1910), 197 and helped Boddy fund his Pentecostal periodical Confidence.{{rp|51}} Polhill became the first President of the Pentecostal Missionary Union (PMU),{{rp|125–126}} and administered it along China Inland Mission lines.{{rp|125–126}} In 1925 the Executive Council of the PMU voted to merge with the British Assemblies of God, and so Polhill, an Anglican, resigned aged 65.{{rp|56}} He maintained friendly relationships with the PMU, and missionaries in the field.

Personal life

In 1888, he married Eleanor Agnes Marston,C. Polhill, Two Etonians in China (Unpublished: c. 1925), 119. and their marriage produced six children, three daughters and three sons.A.W. Marston, With the King: Pages from the Life of Mrs Cecil Polhill (London: Marshall Brothers, c.1905), 120, 141, 154, 178, 184 and 200 for each child respectively.