Vyvyan Donnithorne

{{Infobox Christian leader

| type = Archdeacon

| honorific-prefix = The Venerable

| name = Vyvyan Henry Donnithorne

| honorific-suffix = MC MA

| image = Vyvyan Donnithorne.jpg

| caption = V. H. Donnithorne at his house in Sha Tin, 1960s

| title = Archdeacon of Western Szechwan

| church = Church in China

| diocese = Western Szechwan

| enthroned = 1935

| term_end = 1949

| predecessor = Frederick Boreham

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1886|01|08|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Twickenham, England

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1968|12|12|1886|01|08|df=yes}}

| death_place = British Hong Kong

| buried = Hong Kong Cemetery

| nationality = British

| religion = Anglican

| spouse = Gladys Emma Ingram

| children = Audrey Donnithorne

| alma_mater = {{Plainlist|

}}

The Venerable Vyvyan Henry Donnithorne, MC, MA (8 January 1886 – 12 December 1968) was Archdeacon of Western Szechwan from 1935 to 1949.

Biography

Vyvyan Donnithorne was of Cornish descent.{{cite book |last=Donnithorne |first=Audrey G. |author-link=Audrey Donnithorne |date=29 March 2019 |title=China: In Life's Foreground |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zDePDwAAQBAJ&dq=China%3A+In+Life%27s+Foreground+Cornishman&pg=PT136 |location=North Melbourne |publisher=Australian Scholarly Publishing |isbn=9781925801576}} He was educated at Christ's Hospital, Clare College, Cambridge and Ridley Hall, Cambridge.‘DONNITHORNE, Rev. Vyvyan Henry’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014 [http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U51197, accessed 6 July 2017] After wartime service[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29063/page/1329/data.pdf National Archives] in the Royal Hampshire Regiment[http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1087174?descriptiontype=Full&ref=WO+339/33273 National Archives] he was ordained in 1919. He was a member of the Church Missionary Society in Szechwan (now romanized as Sichuan), West China from 1920 to 1949.{{cite web |url=https://www.thetimes.com/world/asia/article/audrey-donnithorne-obituary-cf2swn5cn |title=Audrey Donnithorne obituary |author= |date=30 June 2020 |website=The Times |access-date=9 May 2021}}[http://www.missionstudies.org.au/aams/201006.pdf Mission Studies] He served as pastor in the Gospel Church of Hanchow, since 1929.{{cite journal |last=Ao |first=Tianzhao |date=2000 |title=三星堆古文化、古城、古国遗址发现始末 |trans-title=The History of Discovery of the Ancient Sanxingdui Culture, and Ruins of Ancient Cities and Kingdoms of Shu |url=https://www.ixueshu.com/document/3bc3f55247d6eed6485b1e1a5b9b4cbd318947a18e7f9386.html |language=zh-hans |journal=巴蜀史志 [Historical Records of Bashu] |issue=4 |page=39 |issn=1671-265X |access-date=18 May 2021}} He was a chaplain in the Canary Islands, Spain from 1949 to 1953.Crockford's Clerical Directory 1938 p2011: Oxford, OUP, 1938 In retirement, he lived in Hong Kong.[https://gwulo.com/node/8741 GWULO] He died in 1968 and was buried in Hong Kong Cemetery.{{cite web |url=https://www.hkmemory.hk/MHK/collections/hong_kong_cemetery/All_Items/images/201309/t20130916_72355.html |title=Donnithorne, Vyvyan Henry |author= |date= |website=hkmemory.hk |access-date=9 May 2021}}

He was the father of Audrey Donnithorne;{{cite web |url=https://hkrbooks.com/2021/01/10/china-in-lifes-foreground/ |title=Book Review: China: In Life's Foreground |last=Zhang |first=Emma |date=10 January 2021 |website=hkrbooks.com |access-date=9 May 2021}} and was one of the key figures in the discovery of the archaeological site now known as Sanxingdui.{{cite web |url=https://new.qq.com/omn/20210415/20210415A0354I00.html |title=谁发现了三星堆？寻找九十年前揭开古蜀之谜的关键人物 |trans-title=Who Discovered Sanxingdui? Looking for the Key Person Who Uncovered the Mystery of the Ancient Shu Kingdom 90 Years Ago |author= |date=15 April 2021 |website=new.qq.com |language=zh-hans |access-date=9 May 2021}} A well to do farmer had discovered jade implements while dredging an irrigation ditch in 1927.{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Xu |first=Jay |title=Lithic Artifacts from Yueliangwan: Research Notes on an Early Discovery at the Sanxingdui Site |url=https://www.academia.edu/44645690 |editor-last1=Silbergeld |editor-first1=Jerome |editor-link1=Jerome Silbergeld |editor-last2=Ching |editor-first2=Dora C. Y. |editor-last3=Smith |editor-first3=Judith G. |editor-last4=Merck |editor-first4=Alfreda |encyclopedia=Bridges to Heaven: Essays on East Asian Art in Honor of Professor Wen C. Fong, Volume I |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-691-15298-1}} This was near Hanchow, where Donnithorne was stationed, and the discovery was brought to his attention in 1931. He recognized the importance of the discovery and contacted a local magistrate as well as Daniel S. Dye, a professor of geology at West China Union University. The three of them then visited the site and photographed and measured it. Through the magistrate, a few items were acquired and sent to the museum at WCUU. Then, in 1934, David Crockett Graham, the new director of the museum at WCUU, organized the first archaeological excavation of the site.{{cite journal |last=Graham |first=David C. |year=1934 |title=A Preliminary Report of the Hanchow Excavation |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AJournal_of_the_West_China_Border_Research_Society_(1933-34%3B_vol._VI).pdf&page=230 |journal=Journal of the West China Border Research Society |volume=6 |pages=114–131}}