Frank Houghton

HOUGHTON, Frank, b. Stafford, 24 April 1894; d. Pembury, near Tunbridge Wells, Kent, 25 Jan 1972. He was the fourth of eight children, five of whom became missionaries. By the age of 13 he was writing both sacred and comic verse; at 17, with his brother Alfred (‘Tim’), he had a dramatic escape from drowning at Boscombe, both boys being dragged ashore unconscious. After studying at the University of London (BA 1913) and the London College of Divinity from 1914, he was ordained (deacon 1917, priest 1918). He served as curate in Everton, Liverpool (1917-19), and at All Saints’, Preston (1919-20), where he discovered the biography of James Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission...