Elizabeth Blackburn Christie Ferguson (3 April 1868 – 17 January 1901), also known in Chinese as 宋伊莉莎白, was a Scottish medical missionary from Glasgow. Active in Taiwan from 1892 until her death in 1901,Tainan Council Minutes, January 25, 1901. Revs. Barclay, Ferguson and Nielson； Dr. Anderson； M. Johnson. 3. she is regarded in Taiwan as a pioneer of modern female medicine. She based her medical and missionary work in Tainan, providing medical care, particularly to women and children, and served at the New Missionary Hospital (Sin-Lau Hospital 新樓醫院). She died in Tainan at the age of 32.
Early life and education Elizabeth Blackburn Christie was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1868. Showing academic promise from an early age, she learned to read by the age of five and consistently ranked near the top of her class throughout her education.
She pursued medical studies and graduated at the age of 24, finishing first in her class. She subsequently obtained Scotland's Triple Qualification, qualifying in medicine, surgery and midwifery. She was reportedly the first Scottish woman to obtain the qualification.
Medical missionary work in Taiwan In 1891, Christie travelled to Taiwan as a medical missionary. She was based in Tainan, where she provided medical treatment, particularly to women and children, who often had limited access to medical care. She also travelled throughout southern Taiwan to treat patients and assist with childbirth, providing medicines and treatment free of charge. During her approximately nine years in Taiwan, she treated thousands of patients.
In January 1892, she married Rev. Duncan Ferguson (宋忠堅, 1860–1923), a Scottish Presbyterian missionary. The couple subsequently worked together in southern Taiwan, combining missionary work with medical and social services.
Contributions to women's healthcare in Taiwan
As one of the first modern female physicians in Taiwan, Elizabeth Blackburn Christie (宋伊莉莎白) helped introduce Western approaches to women's healthcare and childbirth in the late Qing period. At a time when Taiwanese women had limited access to Western medical care, particularly for pregnancy and childbirth, her work as a female physician and medical missionary provided an important point of access to modern obstetric treatment. Based at Sin-Lau Hospital in Tainan, she treated women and children, attended childbirths, including emergencies at night, and provided medical treatment and medicines free of charge. Her work also formed part of the early transmission of Western-style obstetric and midwifery practices to Taiwanese women accessed such practices mainly through foreign female doctors, missionaries and church medical institutions before the establishment of formal midwifery training for Taiwanese women in 1906.
Illness and death In December 1900, Christie contracted a serious illness while travelling to Muzha (木柵) in southern Taiwan. After returning to Tainan, she was treated by colleagues at Sin-Lau Hospital, including Dr. David Anderson and the Japanese physician Dr. Tsukiyama Kiichi (築山揆一), but her condition did not improve. She remained ill for more than 40 days.
Christie died at Sin-Lau Hospital in Tainan on 17 January 1901, aged 32. She was buried in the Christian cemetery outside Tainan's North Gate. Her funeral procession drew a large crowd of local residents; according to an academic account, about 1,000 people joined the procession, including many women and girls who had received her medical care.
Returning artefacts to Taiwan Following Christie's death in 1901, her personal belongings were returned to Glasgow and passed through several generations of her family in Scotland. In 2025, her descendant, Rev. John Christie, offered the collection to the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, and the artefacts—including wood and bamboo carvings, textiles and a framed plaque (明道濟世 Proclaiming the Logos to Save the World)—were sent to Taiwan by air freight. They were formally unboxed at Sin-Lau Hospital in April 2026 in a joint ceremony with the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan Archives, marking the return of objects associated with Christie and her husband, Rev. Duncan Ferguson, more than a century after they had left Taiwan.
Reference