Born in Belfast, Ireland (modern-day Northern Ireland), Priscilla Stewart arrived in Shanghai in 1887 as part of The Hundred missionaries of the China Inland Mission and was one of a large party to arrive together.

Had you asked me to come to a meeting when I was a girl, I would have said, 'No, thank you, none of your religion for me'; for my idea of a person loving God was to have a face as long as a coffee pot.In China, after praying whilst kneeling in the snow, she became seriously ill with pneumonia, so much so that she sent for her then fiancé Charles Studd, who was himself recovering from an attack of pleurisy.

In 1888, they went through a wedding ceremony with Pastor Xi Shengmo – who was unlicensed – but it pleased the locals.

They had four daughters – Grace, Dorothy, Edith and Pauline; two sons died in infancy.

After another return to England, Charles' missionary work took him alone to Africa and the last sixteen years of their married life were spent apart, Charles remaining in Africa and Priscilla in England, where she laboured with the newly formed Worldwide Evangelization Crusade.