British citizen played heroic role in helping to free China from Japanese aggression, Sun Ruisheng and Palden Nyima report.

International friends can come in many shapes and sizes. However they arrive on the scene, they are always appreciated, especially in times of turbulence. Michael Lindsay (1909-94) is a case in point. The British citizen contributed a great deal to the causes of education and humanitarianism in China during World War II.

After graduating from the University of Oxford in 1931, Lindsay arrived in China in 1937 on a ship from Canada intending merely to teach Keynesian economics at Beiping Yenching University, the current Peking University.