Edward Band

Edward Band
Missionary and teacher
Born7 January 1886
Died22 March 1971(1971-03-22) (aged 85)
NationalityBritish
Alma materQueens' College, Cambridge
ChildrenGeorge Band

Edward Band (7 January 1886 – 22 March 1971) was an English Presbyterian missionary and schoolteacher. He spent most of his career in Taiwan, arriving in 1912 and leaving in 1940. He was the first missionary there sent to Japan to learn Japanese after the transfer of power from the Qing dynasty to the Japanese government,[1] he spoke Japanese and Taiwanese fluently.[2]

Band was a pupil of Birkenhead School and then went to Queens' College, Cambridge to study Mathematics[3] before completing a theology course at Westminster College in Cambridge.[4]

Band taught at and was eventually principal of Tainan's Presbyterian Church High School, renamed Chang Jung Senior High School [zh] in 1939, and introduced association football to the island.[1][5][6]

Band authored several books; Barclay of Formosa (1936), a biography of fellow missionary Thomas Barclay, Working His Purpose Out (1947), a history of the English Presbyterian Mission published on its centenary in 1947,[1] and He Brought Them Out: the Story of the Christian Movement Among the Mountain Tribes of Formosa, published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1949.

  1. ^ a b c Otness, pp. 8–9
  2. ^ Yang-En, Cheng (1 July 2009). "Calvinism and Taiwan". Theology Today. #66 (2): 184–202. ISSN 0040-5736. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
  3. ^ "Queens' College Record 20I2" (PDF). Queen's College, Cambridge. 2012. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
  4. ^ "History 462 Changzhong New Principal Wan Ronghua". Taiwan Church Bulletin. 2425. 23 August 1998. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
  5. ^ Pan, Jason. "FEATURE: Taiwan's soccer roots start in colonial Tainan". www.taipeitimes.com. Taipei Times. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
  6. ^ Han Cheung (1 January 2023). "Taiwan in Time: Soccer madness in the Japanese era". Taipei Times. Retrieved 1 January 2023.