Frank Schofield

For the U.S. Navy admiral and governor of Guam, see Frank Herman Schofield.

Frank W. Schofield
Born	(1889-03-15)15 March 1889 Warwickshire, England
Died	16 April 1970(1970-04-16) (aged 81) Seoul, South Korea
Known for	Korean independence activism
Relatives	Alice Schofield (spouse)
Medical career
Profession	Veterinarian and Missionary
Institutions	Ontario Veterinary College, Seoul National University
Research	Paragonimus, new-castle disease

Frank William Schofield (15 March 1889 – 16 April 1970) was a British-born Canadian veterinarian, missionary, and Korean independence activist. He is also known by his Korean name Seok Ho-pil (Korean: 석호필; Hanja: 石虎弼).

In 1916, Schofield moved to Korea as a Presbyterian missionary and lecturer at Severance Medical School. Korea was then under Japanese rule, and Schofield became known for openly criticizing Japan's repressive policies. In 1919, he became the only foreigner informed in advance of the March 1st Movement protests, now considered a seminal event in Korean history. Schofield photographed and documented the protests, and spread news of their violent suppression to the international press. His work is now considered historically significant, with his photos now displayed in textbooks and museums in South Korea. In 1920, he was pressured to leave Korea and returned to Canada. There, he continued donating to Korea and advocating its independence.

Schofield returned to his alma mater, Ontario Veterinary College (OVC), where he would lecture and research until his retirement in 1955. He was then invited to return to South Korea by the South Korean president Syngman Rhee, and was made a lecturer at Seoul National University. He publicly criticized the military dictatorships of Rhee and Park Chung Hee. He was reportedly frugal, and donated much of his money to orphanages and scholarships in Korea. Among his beneficiaries and mentees was later Prime Minister of South Korea Chung Un-chan.

Schofield has since become beloved in South Korea. He has been described as "an eternal Korean", and received a number of national awards from the country. As of 2021, he is the only foreigner to be buried in Seoul National Cemetery. He is also remembered for his contributions to medical and veterinary research.

Early life and education

Frank William Schofield was born on 15 March 1889 in Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom. He was the youngest of four siblings. His mother when he was young, and his father remarried. The economic situation of Schofield's family has been described as lower middle-class. Schofield hoped to move to Canada, which he saw as a land of opportunity, and saved money by working as a farm laborer in order to move there after graduating from high school.

In 1907, he moved by himself to Toronto, Canada. He again worked as a farm laborer while there. In Fall of that year, he was admitted to the Ontario Veterinary College. During his schooling, Schofield experienced not only financial difficulties, but also suffered from the disease polio, which left one each of his legs and arms paralyzed. In 1911, he graduated from there with a doctorate in bacteriology. His thesis was entitled "The bacteriological analysis of milk being sold in Toronto". In 1912, he joined the faculty of his alma mater. In 1913, he married Alice, a piano student.

Korea

In November 1916, Schofield and his wife arrived in Korea as missionaries of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Schofield had been invited to go by the head of Severance Medical School (세브란스의학전문학교), Oliver R. Avison, and became an instructor at the school.

At the time, Korea was under Japanese occupation. Colonial policies included Japanization efforts: forced cultural assimilation. Japan controlled institutions of education and culture, and assumed control over the economy. Koreans experienced systemic discrimination on the basis of their race. Japanese authorities were allowed to detain suspects without charge, and were known to mistreat prisoners. Christian organizations operated by foreign missionaries served as alternate sources of social organization and culture for Korean people. Japan made efforts to place restrictions on the operation of these organizations.

Schofield has been described as a skillful and intelligent orator and researcher, and also as opinionated, outspoken, and intimidating. He reportedly became notorious for openly criticizing Japanese colonial policies. For example, he criticized the Japanese system of prostitution that was imported to Korea; he mocked the use of the word "civilizing", which was to describe Japan's colonial policies in Korea, as "syphilizing". Schofield worked to learn the Korean language upon his arrival, and by his second year was reportedly able to give lectures in the language. During his lectures, he reportedly occasionally made comments such as "no nation in the world can retain their colonies forever". He reportedly gained the trust of Korean independence activists.

March 1st Movement

See also: March 1st Movement

Around early 1919, a series of events in Korea caused significant societal discontent against colonial rule. From 25 to 27 February, a series of secret meetings were held in Seoul by Korean independence activists, during which they produced a Korean Declaration of Independence and planned mass peaceful protests against Japan for 1 March. These protests went on to persist for months afterwards, and are now considered in South Korea to be a landmark event in Korean history.

On 28 February, Schofield became reportedly the only foreign missionary to be informed of their plans in advance. One of his students, Yi Gap-seong (이갑성), gave him copies of the declaration and asked him to distribute them amongst his colleagues at the medical school and to foreign governments. Schofield, who owned a camera, was also asked to photograph the protests. He reportedly advised Yi against conducting them. Yi reportedly replied "You are an Englishmen, so think like an imperialist [sic], but we trust you". Schofield relented to helping them.

After the beginning of the protests, Schofield walked around and secretly took photos. These photos are now considered historically significant; they were republished in international newspapers, possibly referenced by the Canadian government's inquiries into the protests, and now appear in Korean museums and textbooks. He photographed the Japanese police and military, as well as rural villages in Suwon that were destroyed as retaliation for the protests by the Japanese in April 1919. He documented evidence of the Jeamni massacre, during which Japanese soldiers killed unarmed Korean Christians they had lured into a church, then burned the building down to destroy the evidence. While at the hospital, he also witnessed patients arriving with injuries from the protests, and documented these sights as well.

Schofield also reportedly personally intervened in a number of arrests. He would claim the arrested person was his "maid" or "houseboy", and demand they be released lest the British Consulate become involved.

Schofield wrote articles about the protests and Japan's violent retaliation to them, and submitted them for publication in the international press. He also published articles in Korea during this time. An article was published in the colonial government–backed English-language newspaper The Seoul Press that favorably described prison conditions in Seodaemun Prison; the prison was notorious for torturing independence activists. Schofield penned an anonymous response article that was published in the paper, in which he mocked the previous article and described in detail the methods of torture employed at the prison.

In Summer 1919, Schofield and missionary Bishop Welch were confronted in a meeting with Japanese politicians, including the Japanese colonial governor Saitō Makoto. Schofield challenged them directly at the meeting. He also penned response articles to their statements, in which he mocked their efforts to cover up or downplay the protests, and described in graphic detail the violence that Japanese authorities had perpetrated.

Expulsion

In December, Saitō described Schofield as an "arch agitator" and "a most dangerous man, assiduously carrying on the independence agitation in Korea". The British consulate agreed with Japan's assessment, and issued Schofield a warning to cease his activism, which Schofield rebuffed. Schofield also publicly condemned British colonialism, and compared Korea's plight to that of Ireland and British India.

It is to Japan’s interests to be magnanimous with Korea, for if Korea has to pay as heavily for all her reforms as she is paying for the present ones Korea will always be the deadly enemy of Japan, and a serious menace whether ‘assimilated’ or independent…. England some day will have to satisfy Ireland in most of her demands. It would have been a much wiser policy to have granted Ireland her demands earlier, and in so doing have retained the friendship of Ireland.

The colonial government reportedly began attempting to pressure Schofield into leaving Korea. In early 1920, his wife's mental instability was used as a pretext for his recall to Canada; while the recall was conducted by the Presbyterian Church in Canada, it has been described as an "apparent muzzling" effort to prevent him from damaging their relationship with Japan.

Schofield appealed his recall until 1923. In 1921, he wrote "As to my getting into politics in Korea when I return, there is little danger. However should the Japanese do something very bad… then I might also do something bad, but there need be little fear on this account". His appeal was debated for several years; the church feared his poltiical activism and was also experiencing financial difficulties. Legault and Prescott argue that Schofield himself ultimately declined to return to Korea, in consideration of his wife's health.

Later life

After his return to Canada, in 1921, Schofield was made Director of Veterinary Hygiene and Research at OVC. He continued to teach and research there for 35 years. During this time, Schofield continued to advocate for the Korean independence movement, and also donated to Korean orphanages and churches.

Schofield published on the etiology and pathology of moldy sweet clover poisoning, which contributed to the discovery of the anticoagulant warfarin. In a 2003 memorial lecture to Schofield, speaker Tony Hayes argued that Schofield's discovery that orally-introduced substances could cause clotting was a seminal discovery of the 20th century in the veterinary field. Hayes claimed that warfarin was later given to Schofield in 1958, after he experienced a heart attack, and that he possibly benefitted from his own research.

In 1948, he became the only Canadian founding member of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists. Schofield also researched on various biological issues related to livestock, bacteriology, and virology.

In 1955, Schofield retired from OVC due to problems with his eyesight.

Return to Korea

In 1958, he was invited by South Korean president Syngman Rhee to return to Korea. He taught at the Veterinary College of Seoul National University, continued funding orphanages, and paid to cover tuition expenses of students.

He became a vocal critical of the Rhee dictatorship, which caused the administration to attempt to pressure Schofield into leaving Korea. This pressure ended after the 1960 April Revolution protests against Rhee, which he described as "the triumph of righteousness, courage and freedom over tyranny, corruption, brutality" and likened to the spirit of the March 1st Movement. After the May 16 coup, during which Park Chung Hee established a military dictatorship over South Korea, Schofield initially expressed optimism that the regime could combat corruption in the country. He later published a number of articles that criticized the regime's actions.

Schofield's health began to decline in 1969. He died at Seoul National University Hospital on 12 April 1970, at the age of 81. On 16 April, a public funeral was held for him.

Legacy

Schofield was the first and, as of 2021, only foreigner to buried in Seoul National Cemetery. He has been widely praised in South Korea. Prime Minister Chung Il-kwon described him as "an eternal Korean". He has been described as an instrumental figure in the March 1st Movement, and dubbed "the 34th man", in reference to the 33 signers of the Korean Declaration of Independence.

In 1960, he received the South Korean Order of Cultural Merit medal, as well as the Key to the City of Seoul. In 1968, he received the South Korean Order of Merit for National Foundation. In 1970, he received the Distinguished Member title from the American College of Veterinary Pathologists, the organization's highest title, in a ceremony in Seoul. In 2003, it was reported that the OVC hosted a Schofield Lecture series, and that their top undergraduate award for pathology was called the Schofield prize.

Schofield was reportedly known for donating a significant amount of his own money and belongings to others. He reportedly lived in a small rented house during his time at OVC, and often lacked funds to travel.

Chung Un-chan, Prime Minister of South Korea from 2009 to 2010, later recalled that Schofield paid for his tuition expenses and served as a mentor to him. Chung wrote of this in a biography of Schofield entitled I Wish to be Buried in Korea:

Back then, my family's circumstances were such that we worried about feeding ourselves... Not only did Doctor Schofield generously provide for my tuition and expenses, he was my spiritual pillar who greatly affected the molding of my character… Having lost my father when I was young, Dr. Schofield was like a true father to me... I vividly remember him lamenting that in Korea the rich have not an iota of sympathy for the poor as he witnessed the widening gap between the rich and poor during the economic growth of the 1960s. He…advised me to choose economics as my major in college. He encouraged me to spend my life working to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor.