Introduction
In this intriguing article from regular contributors Mark
Gorman and Peter Williams, they uncover the story of sailors from the Far East
who have memorials in a local Christian churchyard dating from more than a
hundred years ago. They also discover more about why this might have happened
and the remarkable story of a Christian missionary who is buried locally in
Woodgrange Park cemetery.
East Ham connection
In the churchyard of East Ham parish church (the church of
St Mary Magdalene) there is a memorial that only has Chinese writing on it.
This is in that part of the cemetery that is now Newham Council’s East Ham
Nature Reserve.
 |
The so called Chinese
grave St Mary’s June 2024 (photo Peter Williams) |
In June 2024 a member of a corporate volunteering programme
spent a morning in the nature reserve. She was of Chinese heritage and was able
to decipher part of the grave inscription. She worked out that the death
occurred in the fortieth year of the Meiji dynasty which was founded in 1868.
So death occurred in late 1907. She also thought the memorial had been erected in
March 1909 after the deceased friends got together and organised it, or got the
headstone placed then.
The volunteer was aware that the Meiji was a Japanese
dynasty and not Chinese. The Japanese and Chinese (Mandarin) languages share
many characters but they are pronounced differently. So it seemed the deceased
might be Japanese.
Peter, a long term volunteer at the nature reserve, is
married to Ros who has lived in Japan and can speak and read Japanese. It turns
out the text on the grave is actually Japanese, and it is clear the deceased
served on a ship, the “Awa Maru”. East Ham parish church is less than a mile
from the Royal Docks, at the time the largest enclosed docks in the world.
London was also the largest and busiest port in the world in 1900.
There were numerous ships plying trade between Britain and
Japan at this period as the two countries were allies then, and this press
cutting shows the Awa Maru was passing Gravesend heading for London in early
December 1907.
 |
Western Daily Press - 2 Dec 1907 | |
The dates fit, as the person in the grave died early December 1907, and shortly afterwards, the ship sailed for Japan, as in this press cutting.
It seems that Awa Maru was built in Nagasaki in 1899 and below is a record of a Lloyds of London inspection - it seems to have had a Scandinavian captain in 1899:
The ship even has its own Wikipedia page:
And here is a photo of the ship in British waters:
The photo was taken because she ran aground off Redcar,
Yorkshire in 1906 but was refloated.
In WW2 another ship bearing the same name was involved in a
notorious incident where it was torpedoed by the US Navy and 2,000 people died.
It was carrying treasure. See more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Awa_Maru
Who is memorialised
at East Ham?
His name has been deciphered by a Japanese friend of Ros’s
in London called Ai Minematsu (Ai).
In summary: His surname is Haru. His given name is either
Kyoji or Noriharu (depending on how the characters are pronounced). The date of
death shown is early December 1907.
It seems his shipmates got the stone put up – we know from
the records the ship was heading back to London in March 1908 when the burial
was completed, according to the dates on the stone itself. There is also
evidence the memorial stone was imported from Japan, and that the inscription must
have been carved there, as this could not have been done in London.
The story in context
- Chinese and Japanese burials in
east London
By 1900 there were large numbers of Japanese and Chinese
seamen in the London docks. Chinese seafarers had been coming to Britain for
some time.
Chinese seamen and Chinatown
Some Chinese sailors jumped ship and settled, opening
lodging houses, provisions stores, cafes, association halls, and laundries to
cater to the transient seamen and indentured labourers that could be signed on
by British merchant shipping companies in China’s treaty ports for less than
half the wage of a British seaman.
By 1890 there were two distinct, if very small, Chinese
communities living in East London’s dockside neighbourhoods. Chinese men from
Shanghai stayed around Pennyfields, Amoy Place and Ming Street and those from
Guangzhou (Canton) and Southern China lived on the other side of the West India
Dock Road on Limehouse Causeway.
The lack of fluency in the English language
of many Chinese migrants added to the hostility they received from British
seamen and led to cultural segregation. Gradually the streets of Pennyfields
and the Chinese Causeway, as it became known, began to be transformed by
colourful shops and cafes serving Chinese food, their interiors an exotic
contrast to the generally drab surroundings of Limehouse.
In 1895 an article in the Gentleman’s Magazine stated
that Chinatown in Limehouse was no more than a single street of shops and
boarding-houses: "It exists by and for the Chinese firemen, seamen, stewards,
cooks, and carpenters who serve on board the steamers plying between China and
the port of London."
It was this maritime dependence which generated the rapid
growth of Chinese businesses in Limehouse during the First World War. And it
was this dependence which hastened the decline of Chinatown in the 1930s. Chung
Chu, who kept a café on Limehouse Causeway, said in 1931 that "the loss of
shipping entering the London docks was killing the Chinese population.”
Japanese seafarers
Japanese sailors were also arriving with the introduction of
regular mail, passenger and freight services between the UK and Japan from
the late C19th. On average two Japanese ships a month were docking in London by
1900. Given the arduous and dangerous conditions at sea, deaths would have
occurred and occasional references are made to Japanese funerals in the
newspapers.
For example, in 1900 there was a report that “Plaistow
cemetery”
had 28 Chinese and Japanese graves “and strange looking epitaphs are cut upon
them in Chinese [sic] characters”. In
January 1904 the Daily Mirror reported the burial in East Ham of a sailor from
a Nippon Yusen Kaisha ship (possibly the Kanagawa Maru, which was in the Albert
Dock at the time). As no Buddhist priest was available, a Japanese Anglican
minister conducted the funeral service.
The Japanese Christian Institute
This was set up possibly in the late 1890s and may have had
two locations, one at Tilbury and the other near the Albert Dock in Custom
House. It was run by Margaret McLean, who was born in Inverness in about 1837,
and who had been an English teacher in China from 1866 and then moved to Japan
from 1872 due to ill-health.
Living in Yokohama, in her spare time she did missionary
work with British seafarers. In her book Echoes from Japan (1889)
she makes clear that although she had been brought up in the Free Presbyterian
Church in Scotland she was non-sectarian and also that she was strongly
evangelical. She also makes clear her love of Japanese society and culture,
which she contrasts favourably with China. She returned to Britain in 1881,
probably again due to ill-health.
 |
Finsbury Weekly News
and Chronicle 2 April 1904 |
In 1892 Japanese crews came to bring back naval vessels
built in Newcastle and Glasgow, and Margaret began missionary work with them.
According to one account, when a regular mail service was introduced between
London and Japan she moved first to Tilbury and then to the Royal Albert Dock
(though the chronology may in fact be the reverse). By
the early 1900s two Japanese ships a month on average were docking in London,
and Margaret was also travelling to other ports (Sheerness, Portsmouth and
Plymouth) when ships arrived.
The JCI welcomed Japanese seamen and Margaret McLean (who
seems to have run the Institute single-handedly) sometimes took parties of up
to 200 to see the sights of London.
According to the Japanese ambassador in London she was called the “mother of
the Japanese navy” and naval barracks displayed her picture on their walls.
In 1903 she became the first European to receive the Japanese emperor’s
Imperial Order of the Crown, sixth grade, a medal for women only.
Location of the JCI
This is not clear. In the 1901 census Margaret McLean was
living at 2 Dock Road Tilbury, described as an “unsectarian missionary
preacher, Japenese [sic] mission”. However a letter from Margaret McLean
indicates that the JCI was in Coolfin Road, Custom House.
This may indicate that the JCI had two locations, or that the JCI moved to
Tilbury from Custom House c1900. However, reports of Margaret McLean’s funeral
in September 1904 refer to the JCI in “Woolwich” which implies that this was
its main or final location.
Margaret McLean became seriously ill in early 1904, and died
at Southsea in September. She is buried in Woodgrange Park Cemetery. See more
below.
A twist in the tale
In August 2024, when discussing this story with volunteers
in the archives at Newham Council, it emerged there are photos in the archives
of further Japanese memorial stones in East Ham cemetery.
 |
Wrongly labelled
memorial to Chinese sailor (Newham Archives) |
The first is labelled ‘monument to Chinese sailor’ but is
undated. On checking this location in the graveyard today this memorial no
longer exists, and it is impossible even to find the base. Note one face of
this stone is in English, the rest in characters. The name of his ship ‘Bingo
Maru’ (all Japanese ships are something Maru), and then a death date
(illegible). Research focussed on this ship has shown that this is the person
memorialised here, a J Kawauchi who drowned in 1901:
 |
Westminster Gazette - 21 November 1901 |
The ship was also spelt ‘Binga Maru’ or ‘Benga Maru’
sometimes in the British newspapers. The above cutting also confirms that
stones were imported from Japan.
There is another remarkable photo in the Newham Archives
showing the unusual stone that was brought into the UK:
 |
(Newham Archives) |
This photo clearly says "Monuments to Japanese sailors",
and it seems the one to the extreme right is the same as the surviving one
discussed earlier in this article, which initially appeared to be on its own.
In August this year Peter and Ros visited this site and were quickly able to
establish that there is indeed a group of memorials together. One of this group
is visible and readable after clearance of vegetation, though it is tipped to
one side.
 |
Photo Ros Bedlow |
Three faces have now also been read by Japanese national
Ai:
Name: Yoshizo (given) Kawaguchi (surname).
Date of death: 18 September 1911. Aged 22. From Tottori
prefecture, Iwamoto village, Ooaza, Ooiwa, Iwami District
British newspapers at the time reported ship movements in
remarkable detail.
Searching the digital versions, it is clear ‘Kitano Maru’ was
off the St Catherine’s lighthouse, Isle of Wight and London bound on 13
September 1911.
 |
Liverpool Journal of
Commerce - 14 September 1911 |
It is hard to
identify the other memorial stones as none is now standing, and some are more
than half buried.
These are not graves in the normal sense, as they are far
too close together for burials – so either the seamen are buried elsewhere, or
at sea, or they were cremated (as is the Japanese custom) though cremations were
rare in Britain at the time. Official church records are of burials only, not memorials.
The stone used for the memorials is also interesting, being
not recognisable as one of those used for gravestones in the UK. As discussed
above, there is a possibility that the stone was imported from Japan.
We can speculate about the very poor current condition of
this cluster of 5/6 Japanese graves. It is possible they have been deliberately
vandalised (there was huge anti-Japanese feeling after WW2) but this is
speculation. We can also speculate these Japanese seamen converted to
Christianity under the influence of Miss McLean, as otherwise it is hard to
understand how this group of stones came to be in this Christian graveyard.
More on Miss McLean
In another coincidence, while the authors were searching for
unrelated images in the Newham Archives, a photo was found of the grave of Miss
McLean in Woodgrange Park cemetery Romford Rd, on the borders of Forest Gate
and Manor Park. This can be seen here in a photo taken in 1991 with its
Japanese characters.
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Newham Archives |
Notice it says “erected by the officers and sailors of the
Imperial Japanese navy”. In the early 1900s there was a strong military
alliance between Britain and Japan. New warships for Japan were being built in
Newham at the shipyards of the Thames Ironworks which were located where the
River Lea and the Thames meet. In fact, these were the last major orders for
the yard and it closed not long after. The works' football club morphed into
West Ham United FC (hence The Hammers from the tools the shipwrights used).
Woodgrange Park Cemetery, which is a private profit-making
business, went through a very troubled period in the 1990s when it was bought
and sold a number of times, and a developer called Badgehurst got hold of it
with a view to part of it becoming a housing development.
They applied for planning permission which was refused, then it was appealed and again refused. The Cemetery Friends Group were objectors. The owner then obtained the "Woodgrange Park Cemetery Act 1993". This allowed the clearance of the part on High Street North side for building work. The Friends Group took part in the consideration of the Act, and no work was undertaken until it came into force.
There was considerable controversy. The local MP, Stephen Timms was involved and there was much press coverage over the years, to save the graves.
Miss McLean’s grave did survive this trauma but has been
vandalised since the 1990’s. It has lost its cross/anchor at the top due to
vandalism in 2023, and the lower part of the Japanese inscription has been
covered by raising the ground level when the current cemetery owners, a Muslim
organisation, re-landscaped that part of the cemetery.
 |
Miss McLean’s grave,
autumn 2024 (Photo Ros Bedlow) |
From this photo you can see there is a small interpretation
sheet in front of the grave. The cemetery owners recently agreed that the
Friends’ Group could place this sheet explaining why a grave with Japanese
writing is there.
The sheet says that she set up the Anglo Japanese Christian Mission in North Woolwich road (now the runway to London City Airport), that she died insolvent, and that the grave was paid for by a member of the House of Lords, who was a founder member of the Plymouth Bretheren, a conservative Christian sect, not unlike the tradition of her Scottish Presbyterian upbringing.
In recent years a representative of the Friends' Group met with the Japanese Attache at the cemetery. He was interested and said he would try to get funds for the grave to be restored, but sadly they lost interest and were not forthcoming with funds.
Ai, our collaborator, has undertaken further research in the Japanese diplomatic archives. According to an article there, in September 2019 somebody from the Cemetery (presumably from the Friends' Group) contacted the Embassy of Japan in London to try to find any information on Ms Mclean, as the cemetery people couldn't decide what to do with her grave. Then the embassy staff contacted the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in Tokyo in 2020.
They found an old document explaining how she got the Imperial Order of the Crown. This showed that Naval Officer Tamara recommended her for the award to the Japanese ambassador to the UK, who in turn sent a recommendation to the Japanese Foreign Minister, in 1902. She was awarded the recognition and was contacted by the ambassador to that effect the following year.
The file suggests that Miss McLean was very well known amongst Japanse seamen staying in the UK. She looked after them well, and they called her "Dear Mother". As already indicated, she was known as the "Mother of Japanese seamen" in the UK.
The article states that in 2021 with help from the Embassy of Japan, the manager/caretaker of Woodgrange Park Cemetery managed to contact the relatives of Miss Mclean and the cemetery decided to keep Miss Mclean's grave there.
The historical documents from the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan will be archived locally (presumably in Stratford - although that has yet to be confirmed, or those documents received).
Conclusion
What started as a query over a supposed Chinese grave in a cemetery in East Ham has led the authors on an interesting journey into a little-known aspect of local history: the presence of seamen from Japan in Newham over one hundred years ago - and the influence of a Christian mission in looking after their welfare.
End note
Peter and Mark acknowledge the considerable assistance they
have had on this project from Ros Bedlow and her friend Ai Minematsu with
translating the Japanese; and from Ken Marshall of the Friends’ of Woodgrange
cemetery who carried out his own independent research. All have contributed
interesting new discoveries to this article. Tony Morrison helped with AI to
enhance and read a grave inscription. Kathleen Partington a volunteer at Newham
archive shared her knowledge of grave records at East Ham parish church.
A shortened version of this article recently appeared in the
Newham Recorder Newspaper online version. The authors acknowledge the help of
Jess Conway archivist at Newham with this.
Do not hesitate to contact either this blog or the authors for details of some of the sources accessed for this article, and in particular, if you can add more to this fascinating subject.
You may also be interested in this short film from Newham
Heritage Month contributor the Thames Festival Trust: https://www.facebook.com/ThamesFestivalTrust/videos/591480612272837/ , Keiko Itoh on the Japanese Seamen’s Club, Elizabeth Street
North Woolwich from 1898.