Harriette G. Brittan

Harriette (sometimes spelled Harriet) Gertrude Brittan was born in England, June, 1822. In her early years, she removed with her parents to the United States, and settled in Brooklyn, where she obtained a good education. A terrible fall in childhood, from the third to the first floor, so injured her spine that, until she was eighteen, she could not leave her bed, except as she was carried. From that time, she gradually regained her health, but was never able to walk well. Brittan did not gain a high school education, nor theological training. She affiliated with the Anglican Church her entire life. ==Career==

Brittan might have lived in luxury at home, as she had a comfortable fortune in her own right. But the strength of conviction enabled her to go to Africa in spite of physical weakness. She was sent out by the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church to Liberia, After her service in India, she returned for a year to the U.S., and for a time, was at the head of a ward in St. Luke's Hospital, in New York City. She was an indefatigable worker, and was the promoter of many concerts in New York and vicinity, by means of which thousands of dollars were gathered for missionary work. After her resignation from the Union Missionary Society, Japan was the scene of her efforts —- her last as a missionary. Under the auspices of the Protestant Methodist Missionary Society she went to Yokohama in 1880, and took charge of a large mission established for the benefit of Eurasian children, who were often left in destitute circumstances. Until 1893, she was identified with this mission, and later, established and had charge of a home for missionaries. ==Later life and death==

At the age of 63, she gave up regular mission work. In the meantime, business reverses had taken away her fortune and, having been very liberal, she found herself at this age with very limited means. In the early spring of 1897, she disposed of her property in Yokohama and started for the U.S. She had been in poor health for several months, but hoped the sea air would build her up so that she could make the overland journey. She sailed from Japan April 13, but gradually grew weaker. When carried from the steamer to the carriage, she fainted. Upon arriving at the Occidental Hotel, in San Francisco, everything was done for her comfort, but she died the next day, on April 30, 1897. She had hoped to reach New York to see an adopted daughter, who was ill at St. Luke's Hospital. Knowing this would be impossible, she said, "Just as He wills; just as He wills." The funeral services were held at an Episcopal church in San Francisco, as she was a member of that body, and she was laid to rest in a cemetery there overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Harriet Gertrude Brittan and Frederick Charles Klein, Methodist Protestant missionaries to Japan, was published in 1975, by John William Krummel. ==Selected works==

• ''Statement of facts : [concerning the Woman's Union Missionary Society]'', 18-- • Thomas Toomey; the history of an Irish boy, 1861 • Kardoo, the Hindoo girl, 1869 • Shoshie : the Hindoo Zenana teacher, 1873 • ''A woman's talks about India, or, The domestic habits and customs of the people'', 1880 • Scenes and incidents of every-day life in Africa ==References==