William Campbell

Early Years and Calling

William Campbell was born on 11 April 1841 in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied at the University of Glasgow and then at the Free Church theological college there, and during his studies he received the call to spread the gospel overseas. In 1871 he was ordained in London and immediately sent to the Far East by the English Presbyterian Mission.

Arrival and Preaching in Taiwan

In December 1871 Campbell arrived in southern Taiwan and, with Tainan as his centre, began a missionary career that lasted forty-six years. He did not confine himself to the towns but travelled far into the plains and mountain settlements of the south, preaching directly to Siraya and other plains indigenous peoples as well as to Han Chinese residents, setting up chapels and training local preachers. He diligently explored the mountains and rivers of the whole island; he is believed to have been the first European to see Sun Moon Lake, which he called Lake Candidius after a seventeenth-century Dutch missionary.

Father of Education for the Blind

Through his long years of pastoral work, Campbell felt deep compassion for the blind who lived in darkness. In October 1891 he rented the Hong Gong Ancestral Hall (洪公祠) in Tainan and founded Xungu Tang (训瞽堂, Hall for Training the Blind), teaching in braille and offering instruction in the Bible, arithmetic and handicrafts. This was the first institution for the education of the blind in all Taiwan and laid the foundation of special education in Taiwan, and later generations honoured him as the "father of education for the blind in Taiwan".

History and Dictionary

Campbell was also a rigorous scholar. Using his home leave, he went in person to the Netherlands, visiting university libraries and archives, collecting and translating historical sources on Taiwan from the period of Dutch rule. In 1903 he published Formosa under the Dutch, which became an important document for the study of Taiwan's history under Dutch rule. In 1913 he compiled Xiamen Yin Xin Zidian (厦门音新字典) [New Dictionary of the Amoy Vernacular], which, using the romanized Peh-oe-ji system, contains over ten thousand Chinese characters and nearly twenty-five thousand entries, a valuable tool for learning and preserving Taiwanese. He also organised church records and left Tainan Jiaoshihui Yishilu (台南教士会议事录) [Minutes of the Tainan Missionary Council], and wrote various other works introducing Formosa. For his contributions he received an honorary doctorate from Knox College, Toronto, and was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun and the Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Japanese government.

Retirement and Rest

In February 1917 the aged Campbell bade farewell to the Taiwan he deeply loved and returned to Britain, settling in Bournemouth in southern England. On 7 September 1921 he died there at the age of 80. Campbell gave nearly half a century of his life to Taiwan and left a lasting mark, from pioneering the gospel and educating the blind to preserving historical sources and language. His labour and faithfulness are still remembered with gratitude by the church and society in Taiwan today.