Robert Thomas – The mid Wales martyr who brought Christianity to Korea

However in South Korea the name is synonymous with one man born half the world away in Rhayader in 1839.

Robert is remembered in the Asian country as the man who brought the Bible to the peninsula.

Robert had a religious upbringing as the son of the Tabernacle Congregational Chapel minister with the family residing next door.

The chapel had flourished during a religious revival which swept mid Wales during the Victorian Era.

The family later moved to Monmouthshire and Robert studied at Llandovery College and later London where he mastered several languages and earned a reputation as a gifted linguist.

Grade II listed Tabernacle Chapel, Rhayader. Picture by Jaggery/Geograph.

However it had been in theology and religion which Robert had found his calling and in 1861 he began planning for a mission to China and wrote to the New College board.

He wrote ‘I thought that men of good education, of strong constitution, with ability to acquire languages were wanted for the work and I wished to offer my services more in the spirit of self-denial than anything else. I do most firmly believe that I am appointed by God to be a missionary and that He has implanted this preference in my heart.’

However Robert was denied but two years later he was successful and began his mission in Shanghai alongside his new bride, Caroline, in 1863 who he married just five weeks earlier.

Robert had an important mission.

Robert Thomas.

For the past six decades British missionaries employed by the East India Company had worked on translating the Chinese New Testament and Bible and it was the latter which was entrusted to Robert to be taken to Korea.

The newly wed suffered a tragedy early in their new life in China when Caroline died, leaving Robert devastated though more determined than ever to continue his mission.

It is said he had clashed with other missionaries in China at the time with the mid Wales born newcomer more open over his faith to the Chinese than other missionaries had braved.

Robert resigned though remained in China as a customs officer in Chefoo and later Peking where he met with two Korean Catholics who revealed their were 50,000 others in their country who had worshipped illegally in their homes under the guidance of 11 French priests.

Of course Robert would have known of the dangers of travelling to Korea where Catholics had been persecuted since the start of the 19th century and 10,000 had been killed in 1863.

However it was in this climate that Robert Thomas decided to travel to Korea to take Chinese Bibles.

Peking at the turn of the 20th century. Picture by Alfons von Mumm/Wikipedia.

Two years later, in 1865, Robert was smuggled into Korea in disguise and immediately set about work, writing ‘the Koreans were very hostile to foreigners but by a little chat in their own language I could persuade them to accept a book or two.’

Robert survived a shipwreck before travelling through war-torn Manchuria and back to Peking.

Others had not been so fortunate with nine of the 11 French priests executed and left Robert as the interpreter for the French expedition to save the two other priests.

Robert had returned to Korea aboard the American navy gunship, the SS General Sherman, carrying as many bibles as he could aboard the vessel to serve in his own mission.

The ship crossed the Yellow Sea where Robert shared as many as 500 bibles in the village of Poh-Ri as Koreans forbade their government to visit the boat and its preacher.

However disaster struck in Pyongyang when the crew took the chief of police as hostage for ransom and food before the ship was moored not from the shore.

Trapped, the crew of the Sherman had fired at the crowds along the shore which led to the Koreans retaliating by setting the American warship on fire with survivors killed by soldiers at the shore.

SS General Sherman. Picture: Wikpedia.

Robert was said to have been seen on fire throwing bibles to the Koreans - including the soldier who captured him and took him before the governor where he was sentenced to death.

He gave his last bible to his executioner before being beheaded.

His body was buried on an island in the middle of the river where a church in his memory was built in 1932 and today stands the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology.

However word of the Welsh missionary’s noble death spread through Korea and inspired the establishment of churches while even a government official wallpapered his house with bible pages.

Today some Koreans still visit Rhayader, the birthplace of Robert Jermain Thomas, whose story is still told in the peninsula as the man who died to spread Christianity to Korea.