URC Archives, Missionary Fasti. [ Singleton,Leslie,1891-1971 (沈毅敦), English Presbyterian missionary in Tainan,Taiwan in 1821-1956 ] Record of his fasti,1891-1940. [Provided to LES by Yuche Lai 賴佑哲, 2013/12/14]

We learn that Leslie Singleton, who from his height was sometimes known as ‘Lanky’, was born on 18 October 1891 in Lancashire, England. He studied at Westminster Training College and gained a B.Sc. degree from the University of London. He served in the Army (Royal Engineers) for one and a half years, from 1918-19.

He arrived in Tainan early in January 1922, and in that same month he went off to Tokyo to learn Japanese - Taiwan had been annexed by the Japanese in 1895, and it became obligatory for the missionaries to learn that language as well as ‘Formosan’ (Amoy) (see Band.1936:109). In 1926 he was given permission to transfer from a teaching to an evangelical function with the mission;

Accordingly, when he returned to England on furlough in 1928, he attended courses on theology. In August 1929 the family of three sailed for Taiwan, going via Canada, where Mrs Singleton fell ill, so that she had to follow on later. By February 1930 she had reached Taiwan, and the family were there together until 1935. By October 1936 Leslie Singleton was once more in Taiwan.

We have seen that, with the threat of the Japanese invasion of South East Asia, in 1940, Leslie Singleton was called to Singapore. There for eighteen months prior to the Japanese invasion he put his knowledge of Japanese to good use in censorship, and also in security investigations. His address there was 9 Adam Road. He escaped capture by the Japanese.