JOHN BIRCH
Name: John Morrison Birch
Born: May 8, 1918
Died: August 25, 1945
John Morrison Birch (May 8, 1918 - August 25, 1945) was an American Military
Intelligence Officer and a Baptist Missionary in World War II who was shot by
armed supporters of the Communist Party of China. Some politically conservative
groups within the United States consider him to be a martyr, and the first
victim of the Cold War. The conservative John Birch Society, formed 13 years
after his death, is named in honor of him. His parents joined the society as
life members.
Birch was born in Landour, a hill station in the Himalayas in northern India;
both his parents were missionaries. In 1920, when John was 2, the family
returned to America. He was raised in New Jersey and Georgia, brought up in the
Southern Baptist tradition, with his five siblings (he was the oldest). He
received his high school diploma from Lanier High School for Boys, now known as
Central High School (Macon, Georgia). He graduated from Southern Baptist
affiliated Mercer University in Macon, Georgia in 1939. In his senior year at
the university, he organized a student group to identify cases of "heresy" by
professors such as the teaching of evolution. While at Mercer, Birch decided to
become a missionary, and enrolled in the Bible Baptist Seminary at Fort Worth,
Texas. After completing a two-year curriculum in a single year, he sailed for
China in 1940. Arriving in Shanghai, Birch began intensive study of Mandarin
Chinese. After six months of training, he was assigned to Hangzhou, at the time
outside the area occupied by the Japanese fighting in the Second Sino-Japanese
War. However, the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 ended that: the
Japanese sent a force to Hangzhou to arrest Birch. He and other Christian
missionaries fled inland to eastern China. Cut off from the outside world, he
began trying to establish new missions in Zhejiang province.
Name: John Morrison Birch
Born: May 8, 1918
Died: August 25, 1945
John Morrison Birch (May 8, 1918 - August 25, 1945) was an American Military
Intelligence Officer and a Baptist Missionary in World War II who was shot by
armed supporters of the Communist Party of China. Some politically conservative
groups within the United States consider him to be a martyr, and the first
victim of the Cold War. The conservative John Birch Society, formed 13 years
after his death, is named in honor of him. His parents joined the society as
life members.
Birch was born in Landour, a hill station in the Himalayas in northern India;
both his parents were missionaries. In 1920, when John was 2, the family
returned to America. He was raised in New Jersey and Georgia, brought up in the
Southern Baptist tradition, with his five siblings (he was the oldest). He
received his high school diploma from Lanier High School for Boys, now known as
Central High School (Macon, Georgia). He graduated from Southern Baptist
affiliated Mercer University in Macon, Georgia in 1939. In his senior year at
the university, he organized a student group to identify cases of "heresy" by
professors such as the teaching of evolution. While at Mercer, Birch decided to
become a missionary, and enrolled in the Bible Baptist Seminary at Fort Worth,
Texas. After completing a two-year curriculum in a single year, he sailed for
China in 1940. Arriving in Shanghai, Birch began intensive study of Mandarin
Chinese. After six months of training, he was assigned to Hangzhou, at the time
outside the area occupied by the Japanese fighting in the Second Sino-Japanese
War. However, the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 ended that: the
Japanese sent a force to Hangzhou to arrest Birch. He and other Christian
missionaries fled inland to eastern China. Cut off from the outside world, he
began trying to establish new missions in Zhejiang province.