John Magee (missionary)

John Gillespie Magee (1884 – 1953) was an American Episcopalian priest who came from a wealthy Pittsburgh family. He went to school at Yale University and then on to divinity school in Massachusetts.

A missionary in China, he was the minister at an Episcopal mission in Nanking from 1912 to 1940. He managed to film abuses of Chinese civilians by Japanese soldiers during the Nanking Massacre in December 1937. Magee's films were smuggled out and copies were shown to members of the United States government in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade them to institute sanctions against the Japanese government.

While in China, Magee married another missionary, Faith Emmeline Backhouse. They had four sons: John, Hugh, David and Christopher. Their first son was named after his father: John Gillespie Magee, Jr., who went on to write the famous poem, "High Flight."

John Magee served as assistant rector at St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square (Washington, D.C.) in Washington, D.C. While there he was one of the Episcopalian priests officiating at the funeral of Franklin D. Roosevelt in April 1945.

Before his death in 1953 he also served as the Episcopal chaplain at Yale University.

Magee is brother to aviator and Congressman James McDevitt Magee.

Magee is featured in the movie Don't Cry, Nanking.

ee also

*Minnie Vautrin
*John Rabe
*List of Protestant missionaries in China
*Christianity in China

External links

* [http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/NanjingMassacre/NMMage.html About Reverend Magee's Documentary]
* [http://www.geocities.com/nankingatrocities/Terror/terror_02.htm The Reign of Terror: The Safety Zone and American Missionaries]
* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2584/is_n3_v15/ai_17426222 John Magee's documentary footage of the massacre in Nanjing, China, 1937-1938]