William Wharton Cassels

William Wharton Cassels (Chinese name Gai Shili, 盖士利, also rendered Gai Weiliang, 盖为良, and Ge Shili, 葛施理; March 11, 1858 – November 7, 1925) was an English Anglican missionary and the first bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Western China.

Cassels was born in Porto, Portugal, and was educated at Repton School in Derbyshire, England, and St John's College, Cambridge. He was ordained deacon in 1882 and priest in 1883, and from 1882 to 1885 served as curate of All Saints' Church, South Lambeth, London. On February 5, 1885, influenced by Hudson Taylor (戴德生), he left for China as a China Inland Mission missionary; he was one of the “Cambridge Seven.” He reached Shanghai on March 18 and then went to work in Sichuan Province. On October 18, 1895, the Anglican Church created the Diocese of Western China, and Cassels became the diocese's first bishop, until he died of a sudden illness with high fever in Langzhong, Sichuan, on November 7, 1925; his wife died of illness eight days later. He was buried in the garden of St John's Cathedral. St John's Cathedral in Langzhong, whose construction Cassels oversaw and which was consecrated during the Christmas season of 1914, combines Chinese and Western styles and is the cathedral of the Diocese of Western China.