Martha Dorothy Faulkner

Former medical missionary Manchuria (b Co Tyrone 1902; q Belfast 1926), d 21 September 2000. In 1926 she went to Manchuria as a missionary with the Irish Presbyterian Church, where she ran the mission hospital at Kirin. Her patients ranged from peasants to the family of the last emperor. In 1941 Dorothy was detained by the occupying Japanese forces and was interned, firstly in Manchuria and later in Japan, before being sent home in an exchange of civilian prisoners. In Britain she had hospital posts and then worked in singlehanded general practice in Marple, Cheshire, for 20 years. In 1965 she returned to Ulster and worked part time in general practice. When she retired she continued to be active in church life, ethical matters, charities, gardening, and environmental issues. Dorothy travelled extensively, but eschewed anything which smacked of ostentation, sometimes comparing the ways of western society unfavourably with those of her former patients …