Cable, Mildred, and Evangeline and Francesca French

British missionaries.

Cable, Mildred (1878–1952). Born Alice Mildred Cable in Guildford, England, in 1878; died in 1952.

French, Evangeline (1869–1960). Name variations: Eva. Born in Algiers in 1869; died in 1960.

French, Francesca (1871–1960). Born in Belgium in 1871; died in 1960.

Born in England in 1878, Mildred Cable attended Guildford High School and was inspired by the China Inland Mission, the organization for which she studied medicine. Evangeline French, born in Algiers, and her sister Francesca, born in Belgium, attended school in Geneva before their family relocated to England. In 1893, Evangeline was also inspired by the China Inland Mission lectures; she converted to Christianity and sailed to Shanghai to begin her work as a missionary. In 1902, Mildred Cable and Evangeline French met in Hwochow, becoming lifelong companions. Joined by Francesca French in China, they ran a girls' school while preparing for a journey through the Gobi Desert. To preach the gospel throughout the sparsely inhabited, often hostile Gobi, they embarked in 1923 from the City of Prodigals (Suchow) with only a tent, a kettle, a frying pan, and three sleeping bags, as well as a sizable load of Bibles. They traveled the Gobi for 16 years, until 1939, ending the journey in the City of Seagulls (Chuguchak). Their encounters with revolutionary generals, bandits, and lamas would inform their later narrative of the trek, The Gobi Desert (1942). Following her work in the desert, Mildred Cable worked for the Bible Society in England.