Ernst Johann Eitel

Ernst Johann Eitel or alternatively Ernest John Eitel (13 February 1838 – 10 November 1908) was a German-born Protestant who became a notable missionary in China and civil servant in British Hong Kong, where he served as Inspector of Schools from 1879 to 1896.

[1] Adopting the Chinese name 歐德理 (pinyin: Ōudélǐ), he came to Lilang, Xin'an district in Guangdong, China under the Basel Mission.

Eitel left Hong Kong in 1896 to begin a new life as Pastor of St Stephen's Lutheran Church, Pirie Street, Adelaide, South Australia, in 1897.

[5]: 15  The next year, he was appointed part-time lecturer in German at the University of Adelaide, a post he held until he died.

Eitel used his own system of Cantonese Romanization which was a minor refinement of the work of Elijah Bridgman in his pioneering 'Chinese Chrestomathy in the Canton Dialect' of 1841 and Samuel Williams' glossary dictionary Tonic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Canton Dialect written in 1856.