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James P. Leynse was born in Middleburg, Holland, on March 20, 1890. At an early age Leynse showed a talent for rhetoric and had ambitions as a stage actor. His Dutch-Calvanist father challenged him to do more with his life and this eventually led him to the University of Leiden to study for the ministry in the Dutch Reformed Church.

As soon as he was ordained, Leynse elected to serve as a missionary in China. His church did not have any missions in China at that time; but this stopped him only momentarily. He decided to seek affiliation with the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions in the United States. The American officials, however, were not satisfied with his education and required him to study for two more years at Princeton University and be ordained once again.

Shortly after he completed his additional studies, his Dutch fiancee, Anna Marie Groenendyk, came to America and they were married on June 21, 1920. They sailed for China in December 1920 and for the next 29 years their home was the Presbyterian Mission in Peking. It was there that their two sons, Humphrey and Waldo, were born.

Leynse's first three years in China were spent learning to read and speak Mandarin Chinese at the College of Chinese studies. At this time Peking was noted for its poverty, beggars, and disease. One of Leynse's first jobs was the organization of kitchens which served free millet porridge to thousands of the hungry. Leynse soon realized, however, that he was only treating a symptom of the problem. Therefore, he wrote to Holland and asked his sister Francina Leynse for help. She arrived in 1930 and for 15 years helped to establish and run an industrial center where homeless women and children could learn a skill.

With the Japanese invasion and subsequent occupation of China, larger problems loomed for the Leynses. At first the Japanese permitted Leynse to continue the Peking Poor Relief Committee. Even though other foreigners were being evacuated the Leynses stayed on in the hopes that the Japanese would continue to overlook them. Late in 1941, they travelled to Japan in order to secure passage to America for their younger son, Waldo. While in Japan they were placed under house arrest and confined for a year and a half. With the aid of Japanese friends they were released and returned to China only to be recaptured and held at the British Embassy in Peking for the remainder of World War II.

During his captivity, Leynse was considerably weakened by bouts with typhoid fever and "sprue" (a disease of the liver and intestines brought on by malnutrition). Despite this ill health he stayed on in China after the Japanese surrender to reorganize and reopen the mission kitchens and hospital.

In 1946 "sprue" attacked him again and he became almost bedridden. Owing to his long service and poor health the mission retired him in 1949. Upon his retirement, Leynse settled in Claremont, California where he began to write.