Mildred Cable

Born in Guildford, England, on February 21, 1878, Alice Mildred Cable felt called to missionary work while still young. She studied pharmacy and human sciences in London, then joined the China Inland Mission in 1901. In China she began a lifelong partnership with Eva French, and later with Eva’s sister Francesca; together they became well known as an inseparable trio.

After years of work in Shanxi, the three women moved west in 1923 toward Gansu and beyond, traveling along remote trade routes through the Gobi Desert and Central Asia. Their journeys were unusual and demanding, and Mildred Cable later wrote about them in books that helped introduce many readers to those regions. Among the works associated with her are Dispatches from North-West Kansu and The Gobi Desert, the latter especially remembered as a travel classic.

In later years she returned to Britain, where she continued writing and speaking. She received the Lawrence of Arabia Memorial Medal in 1942 in recognition of her exploration and died in London on April 30, 1952. Her story is remembered for endurance, curiosity, and the rare record she left of women traveling and working across inner Asia in the early twentieth century.