Under the auspices of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society (WFMS) of the American Methodist Episcopal Church as single women serving as missionaries were unusual and Blackmore's Australian church did not support such a venture. Influenced by Isabella Leonard, a visiting American missionary, Blackmore left for India on 10 December 1886 with her mind set on serving China. However, Blackmore found no permanent position when she arrived in India. Then in Madras, she met Reverend
William Oldham who had gone to India for a conference. This chance meeting opened the doors for Blackmore to contribute to the growing missionary field in Malaya. To prepare for her move, Blackmore took Malay lessons from a family in Moradabad. The couple had previously resided in Singapore. It was also in Moradabad that Blackmore was officiated into the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Education On her arrival in Singapore on 16 July 1887, Blackmore was encouraged by the Oldhams' work which included the local Methodist Episcopal Church and the Anglo-Chinese School at Coleman Street. Within a month, Blackmore helped open a school for Tamil girls. This was opened on 15 August 1887, with the support of the Reverend Oldham, several members of the Indian community, and a teacher named Alexander Hagedorn (Mrs. Alexander Fox). Known originally as the Tamil Girls' School, the school was later renamed the Methodist Girls' School. The school started in a small shophouse on Short Street. By 1925 the school was overcrowded, which precipitated a move to Mount Sophia, where it remained there until 1992 before being moved to its current location. Visiting homes by horse carriage in the estates bounded by Telok Ayer and Neil Road, she was led to the establishment of a second school for girls. Businessman
Tan Keong Saik, along with other influential Chinese families, had persuaded her to teach their daughters The home served as a residence to many of the school-going girls and several runaways,
mui tsais, abandoned girls, and orphans. However, a form of market Malay was used as the lingua franca by the various races that poured into Singapore at the turn of the 20th century. Blackmore had therefore to adapt her knowledge of Malay in her work with the Indians, Malays, and the
Straits Chinese. She became proficient enough in local street Malay to translate hymns and published the Baba Malay periodical, Sahabat using William Shellabear's printing press; the paper was originally meant for women, but it became so popular that its distribution eventually went beyond Penang. In 1894, Blackmore's home became the base for a Straits Chinese church headed by Goh Hood Keng, beginning with just six members and 16 probationers. Prior to this, Blackmore had already been preaching regularly in Malay on Sundays to girls from the Nind Home. She also preached to the Epworth boys' home, and workers from the Missionary Press. Blackmore would accompany Reverend Goh and Dr. Benjamin F. West to preach in the open-air at
Telok Ayer. By 1901, the blossoming Straits Chinese church had grown large enough to move to the Christian Institute at Middle Road, and eventually moving to Kampong Kapor, when it was renamed the Straits Chinese Methodist Church, and eventually Kampong Kapor Methodist Church. The
Kampong Kapor Methodist Church thus traces beginnings to Blackmore's early preaching work in the 1890s. The Bible Women's Training School was organised to train local women to carry on the duties of Christian social work that had already been established. Blackmore was the first to head it between 1901 and 1903. The School trained Eurasian ladies and gradually Chinese women from various parts of Malaya, in-home visitation. The Bible Women's Training School was considered ahead of its time in developing local, self-supporting work. Blackmore retired to Australia in 1927 though she did make several visits to Singapore prior to the outbreak of
World War II. ==See also==