Soong Mei-ling
Soong Mei-ling


Few people in Bratton would immediately associate Soong Mei-ling with Bratton. Mei-ling, born in 1898, was the youngest of the three Soong sisters and became the third wife of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. Sister Chingling married Sun Yat-sen who founded the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) and sister Ai-ling married Kung Hsiang-hsi, a banker and the richest man in early 20th Century China. Their father, Charlie Soong was a wealthy businessman and, earlier, a Methodist missionary. The three sisters were educated in the USA and spoke fluent English, though with a Georgian accent.

Mei-ling and Chiang Kai-shek first met in 1920 and Kai-shek fell in love, but was 11 years older, already married and a Buddhist. Mei-ling’s mother forbad the marriage. In response, Kai-shek divorced his wife and promised to convert to Christianity and so won the mother over. Mei-ling and Kai-shek married in 1927, a marriage which lasted 48 years.

As her husband rose to become Generalissimo and leader of the Kuomintang, Mei-ling “acted as his English translator, secretary and advisor. She was his muse, his eyes, his ears, and his most loyal champion”. She flew with Kai-shek to Cairo to meet with both Roosevelt and Churchill to discuss the fight with Japan. Churchill called her the a most remarkable and fascinating personality. Mei-ling initially avoided publicity, but she began an ambitious social welfare project to establish schools for the orphans of Chinese soldiers.

She made several tours of the USA in order to raise awareness of the Nationalist war effort. After the defeat of the Nationalists in 1949, Mei-ling followed her husband to Taiwan, while her sisters stayed in mainland China, siding with the communists. Her husband visited Bratton House when it was owned by Sir Horace Seymour, British Ambassador to China from 1942 to 1946, and Mei-Ling almost certainly accompanied him here.

After the death of Kai-shek in 1975, Mei-ling moved to the USA. She had repeated fights with cancer, but each time won. She died in her sleep in 2003 at the age of 105.




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