| A shrine in the Wonsan area in the 1900s. Robert Neff collection |
By Robert Neff
Gertrude Bilbrough hated Americans and missionaries, which was unfortunate for her as they made up most of the Western population in Wonsan when she first arrived. But her hatred wasn't confined just to Westerners.
According to the governor, Yun Chi-ho: "She hates Japanese, despises Koreans and patronizes Chinese." In her household, she refused to hire Koreans because she found them to be "too lazy and noisy" and instead hired only Chinese. It is ironic that one of her Chinese servants was spying on her for the Japanese.
To her Korean neighbors she was probably a nightmare. She constantly denounced them as "thieves and liars" even though, as Yun noted, she smuggled firearms and shifted boundary marks to suit her own convenience, depriving Koreans access to their own land and shrines. If they were thieves, what was she?
In his diary, Yun wrote: "When a person, leaving the civilized centers of the world, elects to live in Korea among Koreans, she ought to make up her mind to put up with their shortcomings."
He was further infuriated when he considered that she paid no taxes (local or central) for her property and yet enjoyed (along with her son) the benefits of Korea ― including hunting and fishing.
Perhaps her final conflict with her Korean neighbors took place in September 1917. Apparently there was a small, but very popular, shrine in one of her gardens. Every day, Korean worshippers would visit the site to pray or offer small sacrifices and, in doing so, inadvertently trespassed and damaged her plants which, allegedly, annoyed her no end. Unwilling to put up with this violation of her property, she ordered her servants to destroy the shrine.
| Possibly a police station in the Wonsan area in the 1900s. Robert Neff Collection |
The villagers soon discovered the shrine had been destroyed and were furious. According to The Seoul Press, on September 17, an angry mob of worshippers besieged the Bilbrough residence and threatened to tear it down. It was only with the help of several Japanese gendarmes that the crowd was compelled to disperse.
Gertrude, however, disputed the claims and presented her own side of the story to the newspaper.
At first, according to her, she knew nothing about the shrine, and this incident was due to a misunderstanding. It started when a servant notified her "that someone had put up a nice wooden house on her property." She did the responsible thing and sent a missive to the local gendarmerie but they never replied, so she ordered her servants to tear it down.
The next day, the Japanese gendarmes paid her a visit and informed her that the building she had torn down was not a house but rather a "raincover to a shrine on her property." They assured her that, as it was some distance from the house, that she would not be able to see it. Satisfied with their explanation, she immediately granted permission for it to be rebuilt, "as she never interfered with anyone's religion."
As for the "hostile demonstration" by the angry worshippers, she insisted it never happened and was merely a fabrication.
Within the year, Gertrude moved from Wonsan to Hong Kong but still maintained ownership of her beautiful estate. It isn't clear why she moved. Perhaps she was lonely and wanted to be closer to her son, Charles, and his wife, or longed for the cosmopolitan life that Wonsan could not provide. It is also reasonable to assume she moved due to her failing health ― she was already in her late 70s
On March 11, 1919, Gertrude died in Hong Kong at the age of 79. In her probate, she left a little over 790 pounds to her son and was buried in that city with a fairly nice gravestone ― perhaps, ironically, a grave with the religious symbol of the cross.
Although surrounded by the gravestones of those who died before and after she did, there is a loneliness associated with her stone (at least in my view) ― she was buried far from family and, for the most part, has been forgotten by the present, except in this series of negative articles. It is a shame that we cannot present her side of the past.
(I would like to thank the Bilbrough family and Diane Nars for their invaluable assistance.)
Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books including, Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.