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Research dossier · People & Ideas

Dixon Edward Hoste

Missionary to China, second director of the China Inland Mission (1861-1946)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 19, 2026
Entity authorityQ3439031 ↗
Source-derived summary

Dixon Edward Hoste (23 July 1861 – 11 May 1946) was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China and the longest lived of the Cambridge Seven. He became the successor to James Hudson Taylor as general director of the China Inland Mission from 1902 to 1935.

Life

Hoste was born in 1861 as the son of Major General Dixon Edward Hoste. He was educated at Clifton College and the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich and at age 18 was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery. In 1882 he experienced a Christian conversion under the influence of Dwight L. Moody.

In 1883 he became interested in the work of the China Inland Mission (CIM) and was the first of the Cambridge Seven to apply to work with this mission. After some delay he was accepted, sailing for China in 1885. He was sent to Küwu (presumably Quwo), to the south of Linfen in southern Shanxi. In 1886 he was ordained as a pastor by Hudson Taylor and moved to Hungtung to work with Stanley P. Smith who had opened an opium refuge there at the invitation of Pastor Hsi. He worked under Hsi, wore Chinese clothes, ate Chinese food, and tried to get an insight into the Chinese mind.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Dixon Edward Hoste” as missionary to China, second director of the China Inland Mission (1861-1946). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1861, 1946, 1902, 1935—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1861-07-23. The account is most persuasive where Dixon, Edward and Hoste can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as missionary to China, second director of the China Inland Mission (1861-1946). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3439031. VIAF identifies the subject as 132942646. The Library of Congress control number is no2010129346. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1861, 1946, 1902 and 1935.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Dixon Edward Hoste”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Dixon Edward Hoste primary sources, Dixon Edward Hoste archive and Dixon research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Dixon Edward Hoste”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Dixon Edward Hoste” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.