Robert Baird "Bob" McClure OOnt FRCS (Edin.) FICS (November 23, 1900 – November 10, 1991) was a Canadian physician, medical missionary to China, Taiwan, Gaza, India, and Borneo, and the 23rd Moderator of the United Church of Canada, the first unordained lay person to hold that position.
Early life
Robert McClure's father, Dr. William McClure, was born in Lachute, Quebec, and earned a medical degree under William Osler at McGill University. William's wife, Margaret (nee Baird) McClure, was born in Pennsylvania. Together, the two became missionaries at a Presbyterian mission in Wuhan, China in 1888. The Boxer Rebellion of 1900 forced the McClures and their two young daughters to evacuate to the port of Shanghai, although Margaret was three months pregnant. From Shanghai, they parted ways. William joined the medical unit of HMS Centurion under the command of Captain John Jellicoe, which was headed for Beijing as part of the Seymour Expedition. Margaret and her daughters sailed to North America on the SS Shinano Maru, landing at Portland, Oregon, where her son Robert was born on November 23, 1900. By 1901, the Boxer Rebellion had been suppressed, and the McClures were reunited in Weihui, where the Presbyterian Church had established a new mission.
Robert McClure grew up in the Weihui compound, and due to his friendships with Chinese playmates, could speak both English and Mandarin by an early age. In 1910, William took a two-year sabbatical and returned with his family to North America, staying with Margaret's relatives in Wooster, Ohio. In 1912, when William was scheduled to return to Weihui, the family made the decision that William and 11-year-old Robert would return to China, while Margaret would stay in North America with her daughters as they completed their primary and high school studies.
After three more years in China, William returned with Robert to North America for another sabbatical, and the family reunited in Toronto, where Robert's two sisters were enrolled at school, Janet at the University of Toronto, and Margaret at Harbord Collegiate Institute. Robert was also enrolled at Harbord, and during his first summer in Toronto, he worked at the Russell Motor Car Company, making munitions for the Canadian Expeditionary Force fighting in the First World War. The next summer, he worked on a farm as part of the "Soldiers of the Soil" program.
University
In the fall of 1917, Robert enrolled in medicine at the University of Toronto, working evenings and weekends as a stevedore at the Toronto docks or a baggage handler at Union Station to earn enough to pay his tuition. He also attended Bloor Street Church, where he was greatly influenced by the sermons of Dr. George C. Pigeon, who would go on to become the first Moderator of the United Church of Canada in 1925.
In 1920, Robert met Amy Hislop and the two started to date. In 1922, McClure graduated with his medical degree, and was planning to do post-graduate surgical work at Harvard University before joining the British Colonial Service. He was approached by George Pidgeon, who asked McClure if he would instead consider travelling to Qinyang, China to replace the doctor at the Presbyterian mission hospital who had been killed by bandits. When McClure pointed out that he needed a year of surgical training, Pidgeon arranged for McClure to work with Dr. Kenneth Perfect at Western Hospital in Toronto for a year.
China missionary
McClure arrived in China in early 1924. Since he could speak Mandarin but could neither read nor write Chinese characters, he enrolled in Chinese language school for several months. McClure then travelled to Qinyang to take up his post as mission doctor at the Menzies Memorial Hospital. The following year, with the formation of the United Church of Canada from the union of the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregationalist Churches, the hospital and mission became a United Church charge.