Southern Min Chinese that was widely used by missionaries. When peace was concluded with China in 1842, he moved to Shanghai where he founded the London Missionary Society Press () together with William Muirhead and Dr William Lockhart. They were later joined by Joseph Edkins, and William Charles Milne. He continued in Shanghai until 1856, laying the foundations of a successful mission. In 1843, New York University conferred upon him the honorary degree of D.D. Delegates' Version Medhurst's principal labour for several years, was in leading the committee of delegates, which created the Delegates' Version of the Bible. In the 1840s, a group of four people (Walter Henry Medhurst, John Stronach, Elijah Coleman Bridgman, and William Charles Milne) cooperated to translate the Bible into Chinese. The translation of the Hebrew language part was done mostly by Gutzlaff from the Netherlands Missionary Society, with the exception of the Pentateuch and the book of Joshua, which were done by the group collectively. The initial Gutzlaff translation, completed in 1847 is well known due to its adoption by the revolutionary peasant leader Hong Xiuquan of the Taiping Rebellion as some of the reputed early doctrines of the organization. The translation of the New Testament was finished in 1850 and of the Old Testament in 1853, written in a version of Classical Chinese. With John Stronach, and the assistance of Wang Tao, Medhurst later translated the New Testament into the Mandarin dialect of Nanking. Significant books Medhurst would also produce a Chinese translation of the Book of Common Prayer, published in Hong Kong in 1855. His Chinese-English and English-Chinese dictionaries (each in 2 vols.) were in use into the twentieth century. Death & memorial Medhurst left Shanghai in 1856, in failing health. He died two days after reaching London, on 24 January 1857 and was buried at the Congregationalists' non-denominational Abney Park Cemetery where his white stone obelisk monument can still be seen today. He left a son, Sir Walter Henry Medhurst (1822–1885), who was British consul at Hankow and afterwards at Shanghai. Works References Linguists from England Translators of the Bible into Chinese English lexicographers English Congregationalist missionaries Congregationalist missionaries in China 1796 births 1857 deaths Burials at Abney Park Cemetery Congregationalist missionaries in Malaysia Congregationalist missionaries in Indonesia British expatriates in China British expatriates in Malaysia English expatriates in Indonesia 19th-century translators Missionary linguists 19th-century lexicographers