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Missionary in China (–)

Gladys May Aylward (24 February – 3 January ) was a British-born evangelical Christianmissionary to China, whose story was told in the book The Small Woman: The Heroic Story of Gladys Aylward, by Alan Burgess, published in The book served as the basis for the film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, starring Ingrid Bergman, in The film was produced by Twentieth Century Fox, and filmed entirely in North Wales and England.^[1]

Early life

Aylward was born in , one of three children of Thomas John Aylward (a postman) and Rosina Florence, a working-class family from Edmonton, North London.^[2] From her early teens, Gladys worked as a housemaid.

Following a calling to go overseas as a Christian missionary, she was accepted by the China Inland Mission to study in a preparatory three-month course for aspiring missionaries. Because of her lack of progress in learning the Chinese language, she was not offered further training.