Reverend Robert J. Cairns and his pupils at the Holy Cross School, Fachow, China, 1924.

"Father Sandy and his pupils. Top row, third from right, Kwok Yeukhon, second row fourth from right, Ling On Tong (just baptized). Holy Cross School's first spiritual results."; Maryknoll, The Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, was founded in 1911 by Revs. James Anthony Walsh and Thomas Frederick Price to be the main mission outreach of the Roman Catholic Church of the United States. The first group of missioners departed in 1918 for China. Today Maryknoll Priests, Brothers and Sisters are missioned in over 30 countries around the world. -- Fr. Cairns was born in Glasgow, Scotland and became a Maryknoll Missionary in 1918 at the age of thirty four. He spent many years in China in Yeung Kong [now Yang-Chiang], Fachow [now Fahsien] and eventually Sancian Island. He was captured by the Japanese on Sancian Island and killed. His presumed date of death is December 14, 1941