Molly Phillips was born in Hong Kong in 1909. Her father, Sidney Frank Ricketts, an electrical engineer, was sent out by his firm in Britain in 1903 to build the first electric power house in Canton. Her mother, Ruth Lavinia Briscombe, a teacher, was appointed by the British Wesleyan Methodist Church to serve in Canton as a teacher. The couple met in Canton and were married there in 1908. When the power house was completed, Sidney's firm moved him to Hong Kong and in October, 1909, Molly was born. She was named Mary but as the Cantonese have no R sound in their language, the Chinese name for Mary was pronounced Mahlay, which very soon became Molly and by that name she is best known. When the Revolution of 1911 occured, life in China was so chaotic that it was impossible to do business with Chinese firms. Consequently the Ricketts family emigrated to Canada where Molly was brought up and educated. After completing her university degree in 1929 she continued her studies in teacher training at which time she met her future husband, Richard Gaundry Phillips. But the Great Depression made it impossible to find a job. Molly was offered a three-year teaching position in Canton which she and her fiance agreed that she should accept as when she returned surely Richard (Dick) would have work. But five months after Molly arrived in Canton a teaching position opened for Dick also in Canton and he immediately accepted. Whem Molly completed her contract, they were married in Canton and later moved to Hong Kong when Dick's teaching position was transferred to that city. Two boys were born to them in Hong Kong and in January 1939 they returned to Vancouver on leave, but with the outbreak of World War II in August of 1939 they were unable to return to the Orient. It was not until 1974 that they way opened up for Molly to take a group of friends to China and from that time until the mid-1990s Molly managed 26 trips to China, 22 as leader of tour groups, one to the International Tourist Convention in Beijing, one to teach at Yantai University summer school, one as a guest of the province of Shandong, and one to explore possible inter-university relations for the Federation of Canada-China Friendship Associations which had been formed in 1980 to unite the fifteen associations that had organized across Canada.
