George Moule, his younger brothers Arthur E. Moule and Handley Moule, were the sons of Henry Moule, Anglican vicar of Fordington in Dorset, England. George Moule was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and after ordination in 1851 served as curate to his father. He offered himself to the CMS in 1857 and served at Ningpo, where he was joined by Arthur in 1861. They experienced the Taiping Rebellion at first hand when Ningpo was under siege in 1862. In 1864 George moved to Hangchow (Hangzhou), becoming the first missionary to serve away from a treaty port. In 1880 he became the first Anglican bishop of mid-China. His long and faithful episcopate included translating the Book of Common Prayer into classical Chinese and making a journey of 3,000 miles in 1892; it ended in 1907, when he resigned his see. One son and two daughters joined the Hangchow mission. He died at Auckland Castle on a visit to his brother Handley, then bishop of Durham.
Attribution
This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright (c) 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of The Gale Group; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan. All rights reserved.
Sources
A. E. Moule, tribute to G. E. Moule, Church Missionary Review, April 1912. Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of Christian Missions in China (1929); Eugene Stock, A History of the Church Missionary Society, vols. 3 and 4 (1899, 1916).