NOT many people can claim to have an ancestor called 'Precious Self-Denial' but this was the name given to my great-great-uncle by the Chinese when he arrived in their country more than a century ago to work as a missionary.

His real name was Frederick Brown and he was born at Bishop Auckland in County Durham. His parents were Anglicans but he was allowed to attend the Methodist Sunday School with his friends and it was here that he was fired with the desire to become a missionary.

After training at Hulme Cliffe College in Derbyshire, Frederick was accepted for missionary work in China in 1882. His first task was to master the language and he went off alone into the interior where he found out that if getting your food depended on speaking the language you learn very quickly. He went to the markets with his notebook and wrote down the words for fish, eggs, rice, cabbage and turnips.

He lived in inns with sun-dried mud-brick walls and a k'ang - a brick bed under which a fire was lit in winter. The windows of the inn were made of paper and the local boys amused themselves by poking their fingers through and making spy holes to see what the 'foreign devil' was up to.

Some time later, when he made the return journey to his base at Chefoo, he greatly regretted not having learned to swim as the streams and rivers were treacherous to cross after torrential rain. He almost drowned but was rescued by Chinese peasants, though his watch and boots were lost and his rescuers demanded what money he had.

During the next two years, he and a fellow-missionary travelled hundreds of miles on horse-back, spreading the Gospel.

His probation over, it was decided he should marry. During his student days in Derbyshire he had met Agnes Barker, a young school teacher and she had agreed to become his wife.

Frederick Brown travelled to Shanghai to meet his bride. Her boat, the Glengarry, was delayed by two days as the French, who had declared war on China, discovered it was carrying lead for Chinese bullets. Not until this had been confiscated at Saigon was the boat allowed to proceed to Shanghai. Agnes and Frederick were married at the cathedral there before returning to Chefoo.

The following year Frederick was transferred to Peking. He soon found the best place for exercise was the top of the 60ft high city walls which were 50ft wide and 21 miles around but one "had to keep to the middle and not go looking down into private yards far below".

Peking was the only city in China with an underground sewer and by law it had to be cleaned out once a century. Unfortunately, Uncle Frederick tells us sadly: "I was resident there when it was cleaned the last time."

In 1888, after two years in Peking, Frederick Brown was appointed Superintendent at Tientsin. The chapel there was at the Fast Gate and many Chinese attended the daily services. This provoked disapproval among the old-guard Chinese who said that because the chapel building was higher than the Confucian temple next door it had taken away the feng-shui (or good spirit) of the temple. Feelings were so aroused, the chapel had to be rebuilt an another site.

While in Tientsin, Brown met a Dr Kin who had studied medicine in America and returned to China a Christian. In his youth Dr Kin had been a great admirer of the Golden Lily feet, as the Chinese referred to women's feet kept small by being bound from childhood. But when he returned from America he found the idea of bound feet an anathema to him and he established an anti-foot binding society which, along with the girls' schools run by missionaries, helped to end the barbaric and unhealthy custom.

Brown continued to work with dedication for China and her people, opening mission schools, introducing a YMCA and planning to establish a university in Peking.

But unsettled and difficult times lay ahead. By the end of the century the notorious Empress Dowager held absolute power in the land.

Determined to stop reform, she was responsible for the extermination of millions of people. Her Harmony of Fists Society (The Boxers) slew countless Chinese Christians and then began the ruthless killing of all foreigners.

The culmination of all this was the Siege of Peking. In the summer of 1900, Brown was asked to join the expedition to relieve that city. His knowledge of the region and its language made him a valuable guide to General Sir Alfred Gaselee.

In fact, it was Brown who recommended that they enter the city by the Middle East Gate rather than the South Gate as recommended by Sir Claude McDonald, the British Minister to Peking, and from there proceed to the water gate or sewer, under the Manchu City Wall.

The general followed his advice and on the morning of August 14, 1900 was the first to enter the city with his forces. Brown wrote: "I too entered the hole under the City Walls, in sewage and covered with filth. We were a sorry spectacle. A march of 12 miles, some fighting and the rescue of the Legations all in one day was not a bad day's work and we had every reason to be thankful."

During the Boxer rebellion a reward was offered for Brown's head - for helping and protecting Chinese Christians - but nine years later, after the death of the Empress Dowager, the new Emperor of China conferred upon him the Order of the Double Dragon in recognition of valuable services rendered by him.

The Brown family left China in 1913, but Frederick retained his love of the country and its people for the rest of his life, which is evident from the four books he wrote about the time spent there.