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Peking Siege

The Boxer Rebellion, an anti-foreigner movement in China, took place form 1899-1901. Throughout the rebellion, Christian Missionaries would provoke the Boxers and by 1899 Boxers were attacking Chinese Christians and Western Missionaries1. Henry Fenn was a six year old boy at the time who lived with his missionary parents in Peking, China. When Peking was marched on by Boxers the foreigners in the town, including the Fenn family, took refuge in the Legation Quarters and built a makeshift defense perimeter2.

Henry Fenn compiled a binder2 about the Peking Siege, and included it in his materials for his autobiography. In this binder Henry included a section on his experience of the Peking Siege. He said that the Siege was one of his first memories and certainly the first thing of importance that he remembers. He describes his life with his parents living in a church, where each family had a row of pews to themselves. He also tells a story about how he and the some of the other young boys would play fight during the day, some pretending to be their fathers, who were fighting against the boxers and some pretending to be the boxers.

Below are newspaper clippings regarding Courtenay Fenn (Henrys father) and the Siege. I selected to display these clippings because they are repeated in the collection almost 15 times. 

Reverend Charles A. Killie, a member of the missionary groups the Fenns were a part of, took photographs of the legation and of missionaries who were living there during the Siege. A member of the Fenn family turned some of these photographs into a photo album. Below are images of four pages from the album, showing the courtyard, the fortified wall, and two images of groups of people who were living there2. I selected these photos because they show what the legation looked like during the siege and the people that experienced the Siege.

In Maverick Henry wrote about the Peking Siege. He says that his first real memories come from during the Siege. The Siege was fundamental in Henry’s childhood and in his sustained interest in China.

Below is an excerpt of Henry’s writing about the Siege2.

References:

  1.  Grant, R., “Siege of the International Legations.” Encyclopedia Britannica. June 13, 2024. https://www.britannica.com/event/Siege-of-the-International-Legations-1900.

  2. Fenn Collection. College of East Asian Studies, Wesleyan University.